"Guayni; SAHS" wrote in message . ..
The issue here seams to be the lack or erroneous knowledge
about the Nitrogen Cycle.

I agree :-) You have still a lot to learn...

Ammonia is the most dangerous form of nitrogen in your tank.

Any ammonia which is detectable with aquarium-grade tests
in an established aquarium tells you one of the two things:

- your test is wrong/faulty/old/missused

- you have something big and freshly dead, decomposing

In a healthy&cycled tank any amount of ammonia produced by
fish is QUICKLY eaten up by 1st group of bacteria, which
use ammonia and convert them to nitrites. No ammonia should be
detected in the water using usual aquarium-grade tests
because all is quickly neutralized if the biological
filter is working properly...

Simple way to check your test is to measure ammonia level
in a freshly mixed sal****er, there should be no detectable
ammonia there. The same applies to nitrites, of course.

It gets oxidized to NO2-(nitrites) by bacteria. The sole
presence of nitrites is a direct indicator that your bacteria
is oxidizing Ammonia since it has no other substantial way
of entering your aquarium.

Detectable nitrites are also strong indication of
INSUFFICIENT action of the second group of bacteria:
these which take nitrites and produce nitrates...

Nitrites get oxidized even further and converted to NO3-(Nitrates)
If your system is low on Ammonia and Nitrites then your bacteria is
oxidizing it to Nitrates.

0.50 mg/l of ammonia in an estabilished aquarium is HIGH!
It usually means that you can find dead fish in one
of the fish tank corners... These are the levels which
should NEVER be detected in a healthy fish tank...

A nitrates level of higher than 1000ppm is needed to cause death
to your fish. Nevertheless a high concentration (100ppm) will
have a direct effect on your fish's metabolism.

And because we do not want nitrates affect our fish we
strive to keep nitrates BELOW 10mg/l, preferably even
lower in a healthy reef tank (1mg/l and lower if possible).

Using SEACHEM low-range nitrite/nitrates test on the water
from my reef tank I read both nitrite and nitrates 0 mg/l.
Of course it does not mean 0.0000000 it simply means they
are below detection limits of the test. First pink color
on the scale is way below 0.1mg/l so I can say nitrates in
my reef tank is at 0.1mg/l or below - this is dirrect effect
of deep sand bed (DSB) and anoxic layers deeper in this sand
where denitrification occurs in my tank.

The problem is usually with phosphates, which in my tank
(with quite heavy cyanobacteria activity eating phosphates up)
is still above 0.1 mg/l PO4: reading 0.18 mg/l on the HANNA
INSTRUMENTS low-range phosphates photometer/colorimeter (+/- 4%)
My goal is to have them below 0.1mg/l with no ugly cyanobacteria
activity helping to bring it down.

In other words, the job of your bacteria ends there, for Nitrates
to be reduced again to nitrites requires low levels of Oxygen.
Many aquarists remove Nitrates by means of water changes.
I chose to remove it by harvesting algae and by creating a nutrients
sink where Nitrates are confined to a specific place where they
feed my algae to be harvested. Is a principle learned in a Wetlands
Ecology class. Is the same principle mangroves in nature and
drainfields in households use.

The problem is (and you are obviously unable to grasp it) that
nitrates at a level of 50 or 100mg/l are simply NOT TOLERABLE
in a helthy, good looking reef tank. Period!
Reef tanks require the cleanest water possible in aquarium trade!
In the tropical reef waters in the ocean, nitrates level is
usually between 0.1-0.3 mg/l. Let's round it up, generously
to 1mg/l - your tank have 50 or 100 times more nitrates than
the reef water in the ocean. Inorganic phosphate levels are less
than 0.3mg/l with dissolved organic phosphate less than 0.15 mg/l.

If you want to bring your magical filter to the reef tanks market
you need to show that your method keeps phosphates and nitrates
under the levels accepted for a reef tank: 0.1 mg/l and 5 mg/l
respectively.

Think about the problem areas in your tank and come up with
a solution to each of the problems:
- high ammonia (any detectable ammonia in a cycled tank is a concern)
- high nitrites (any detectable nitrites in a cycled tank is a concern)
- high nitrates.

Think of it as your homework to do before you come back here
and repeat your preaching about your magical filter... :-)