[snip]
"Phil O'Connor" wrote in message
...
My Emperor filter is not a canister, but a hang-on-back powerfilter with
biowheels. Admittedly, I dont change the filter pads often enough, and I'm
sure
they become nitrate booms. Thats an area I can improve. And I will
repopulate
the janitorial crew. Good suggestions.
[/snip]
Sorry, I was thinking of something else. Either way, canister or hangon
filter will produce nitrate and especially with bios-wheel. Maybe at the
time I wrote the message, I did not have enough caffeine.

[snip]
But I'm confused about your remark that I dont have enough filtration to
remove
nutrients. My biological filter (be it the biowheels, liverock, or both)
is
sufficent enough to keep ammonia and nitrate to zero. That just leaves
denitrification. And all I can do there is water changes, which is very
slow,
and cant elimiate nitrates altogether. I cant put in a DSB at this point.
I
could scale up my liverock, but the liverock in my nano reef fails to
denitrify
at all, so I'm skeptical that it would be successful in my big tank.

[/snip]
Mechnical filter like the filter hangon your tank will trap waste or large
particale. That the purpose of mechnical filter. It just simply filter and
trap large item that go through the media. Any smaller size will simply pass
through it and back to your tank. Those trap particle will be food for
bacteria to break down to nitrate. Nitrate will be the end result of the
cycle. Nothing in your tank or ecosystem will break down nitrate.

Your LR will not be effecient if you only have like 15lb of it for your
tank. Maybe 46lb or more should be consider. You indicate you have Live
Rock, does it have critter living in it or going on it beside algae? Seem
like algae is your friend in your tank to keep your nitrate lower. Without
algae, you may have higher nitrate then you have now.

Water changes is not really denitrification but diluting. You simply remove
a portion of water which may contain nitrate and other and putting in fresh
water without it to your current volume. You will need bacteria that live in
your sandbed to convert any nitrate that obsorb. And especially the decaying
food.

Maybe you should read this to find out about DSB and Denitrification.
http://www.rshimek.com/reef/sediment.htm

Since you do not really have senitive critter then nitrate should not be too
much problem regarding the health of your inhibitant. You simply get algae.

[snip]
Or do you mean that, for instance, a janitorial crew is part of a 'filter'
to
remove nutrients? That I can understand.
[/snip]
Yes, you can consider janitoral crew is part of filter. Even your Trigger if
it eat algae regularly.

[snip]
So at this point, my plan of attack is more frequent vaccuming/water
changes (I
get lazy *blush*), more frequent filter pad replacement, scale up
janitorial
crew.

[/snip]
It seem like this maybe only option in your situation.

[snip]
Other than that, I dont believe I'm understanding your objections to my
Emperor
filter. And do see any value in putting more live rock in? Like I say,
I've
had no success getting liverock to denitrify in my other tank, so I dont
know
how to ensure that will work.
[/snip]
LR will help clean any debris maybe floating and get trap. Those trapped
debris will get eaten either by bacteria or critter that roam about. It
almost the same as your mechnical filter [emperor] It trap debris that get
caught in it. LR will not be as effecient as DSB.


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