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- Aug 2, 2015
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Hi Randy
Firstly im a fan ... Many of my husbandry tasks to day are following on from your contributions or articles , my favorite being silicone dosing. I'm surprised many don't use this , I feel its zeovit's biggest secret. I'm such a believer in sponges cleaning water, I have a dark tank dedicated to sponges. And boy do they grow, and diatoms are so effective in speeding nitrogen cycle. I get excited when my glass is brown as I know it's eating something....!
Anyway this brings me to my question ,... Here is my theory /question..
I have read a couple post on the observations of some of us referring to nitrate factories. If you could explain why this is a nitrate factory .... As apposed to live rock not being a nitrate factory . I understand that within the rock nitrate get consumed , in low oxygen environment. If I look at the denitrification cycle logically only as much ammonia will be processed into nitrite as is available in the aquarium , and then to nitrate. So logically one would assume it's a benifit to have a "nitrate factory" as by default you will have no ammonia or nitrite or far less, and or that ammonia and nitrite is being processed into nitrate much quicker and more effectively than live rock... And subsiquintly processed into nitrate and then one would remove by one of the methods. In the end is nitrate not = to the available ammonia available in the aquarium and is constant if you have a nitrate factory or not ...?Or have I missed something?
Why? I was intreaged by one of the posts referring to po4 reduction in direct relation to available nitrate, as I have strived to have zero nitrate this kinda spurred me to not reduce carbon dosing to increase nitrate but dose stump remover , to increase nitrates, over 3 months with my nitrate between 10-15ppm I have seen an decrease of po4 and is holding stable at 0.04 ppm Po4(took my gfo online).
Looking for something more natural, I took out an old 5foot trickle filer with bio balls, removed the bio balls added some k1, media ( air Pump on order) plumbed from a return to setup a moving bed filter as it seems this is the most effective self maintaining " nitrate factory". I see banshee make a bio reactor now so following similar , methodology. Goal is to produce nitrates to control po4, but I'm perplexed by the above question regarding nitrate factory.
Your insite is appreciated.
Firstly im a fan ... Many of my husbandry tasks to day are following on from your contributions or articles , my favorite being silicone dosing. I'm surprised many don't use this , I feel its zeovit's biggest secret. I'm such a believer in sponges cleaning water, I have a dark tank dedicated to sponges. And boy do they grow, and diatoms are so effective in speeding nitrogen cycle. I get excited when my glass is brown as I know it's eating something....!
Anyway this brings me to my question ,... Here is my theory /question..
I have read a couple post on the observations of some of us referring to nitrate factories. If you could explain why this is a nitrate factory .... As apposed to live rock not being a nitrate factory . I understand that within the rock nitrate get consumed , in low oxygen environment. If I look at the denitrification cycle logically only as much ammonia will be processed into nitrite as is available in the aquarium , and then to nitrate. So logically one would assume it's a benifit to have a "nitrate factory" as by default you will have no ammonia or nitrite or far less, and or that ammonia and nitrite is being processed into nitrate much quicker and more effectively than live rock... And subsiquintly processed into nitrate and then one would remove by one of the methods. In the end is nitrate not = to the available ammonia available in the aquarium and is constant if you have a nitrate factory or not ...?Or have I missed something?
Why? I was intreaged by one of the posts referring to po4 reduction in direct relation to available nitrate, as I have strived to have zero nitrate this kinda spurred me to not reduce carbon dosing to increase nitrate but dose stump remover , to increase nitrates, over 3 months with my nitrate between 10-15ppm I have seen an decrease of po4 and is holding stable at 0.04 ppm Po4(took my gfo online).
Looking for something more natural, I took out an old 5foot trickle filer with bio balls, removed the bio balls added some k1, media ( air Pump on order) plumbed from a return to setup a moving bed filter as it seems this is the most effective self maintaining " nitrate factory". I see banshee make a bio reactor now so following similar , methodology. Goal is to produce nitrates to control po4, but I'm perplexed by the above question regarding nitrate factory.
Your insite is appreciated.