Nitrate reducing bacteria?

Yellowtang

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This could be a long post so please bare with me..

Hopefully this is designed to make you think.. Nitrate and phosphate reduction is the goal of our live rock and our equipment. Be it DSB extra rock in sumps, refugiums, Vodka, vit C, vinegar dosing, water changes, bacterial dosing and chemical pads, reactors, and what have ya. The list goes on and on.. There's just about as many ways to reduce these two objects as there are Reef tanks in the USA. Many people have no problems with reduction of said objects, and many fight the problems with little to no success, some even leave the hobby because they can't get a handle on them. I'm thinking that some of thses people including me that have this problem of creeeping up nitrates comes from not having the bacteria that reduce nitrates. In my case getting bacteria from fellow reefers by getting a cup of their sand dosen't happen in a remote area like I live in because we don't know who each other are. I started a RDSB two months ago because of another forum thread. About the only reason some thing like that doesn't work or at least help a little would be because the bacteria that would benefit that kind of system is not present in my system. So is there a product that has that type of bacteria?? Has anyone tryed it with success.

JR,
 

gilmour01

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as long as you have live rock, you have nitrate reducing bacteria. whether or not you have enough of an anaerobic environment to handle your nitrate load would be another issue.
 
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Yellowtang

Yellowtang

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as long as you have live rock, you have nitrate reducing bacteria. whether or not you have enough of an anaerobic environment to handle your nitrate load would be another issue.

My tank was started with all dead rock. Its a 55 gal chucked full of rock and a couple corals I have bought should have brought in the necessary bacteria. I should have enough rock for anaerobic enviroment plus the RDSB in a 5 gallon bucket plumed into the sump but it doesn't seem as the bacteria is doing the job, that's why I'm thinking a bacteria boost might be of order. I was thinking the booster product might get things in order. Also I was wondering if it was posible to kill off the appropriate bacteria that handles nitrate reduction???

JR,
 

AZDesertRat

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Nitrate reducing bacterias multiply quickly as long as they have a source of food, namely ammonia from fish and food wastes. Nitrosonomas bacteria reduces ammonia to nitrite and nitrobacter bacteria reduces nitrites to nitrates which can then be consumed by many anaerobic or facultative bacteria strains living in a deep sand bed or deep in live rock where it is oxygen starved.

Deep sand beds depend on both depth and surface area, something like a bucket only has limited value since it does not have much surface area. Its better to spread it out in something like a 30 long aquarium at a depth of 5-6" than to make it deeper in a bucket. It could be the same quantity of sand but more efficient layout.
 

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