Hi guys! I had been away quite a loooooong time...

Here is a great tip to reduce nitrate in your tanks! It is soooo easy! Stop rinsing your filter media (i.e. sponges) so frequently. When you let the slimmy material accumulate in your filters you are allowing the deep parts of the media to go anaerobic (no oxygen). The bacteria that remove nitrate can only grow in the absence of oxygen. It really works! How often should you clean it? Well that depends on your setup, experiment how long can you run the filter without clogging and set your filter cleanup schedules based on that.

OH!

I am so glad to see you back again! How is the education going??????

This is a cool idea - is it truly totally anaerobic - or can it be slightly less than a perfect environment? How about adding a separate container that pulls water through it without the extra oxygen like a powerhead that moves the water through a cylinder with only the ends open. I am sure some oxygen would get in there. Is there a way that you can suggest to set up an "anaerobic" filter????

I like this idea - I would like to know more. I know you study neat things like this - is this your investigation or is there reading material available?

Hi Daryl... everything is fine here, thanks! If your filter has a lot of biomass, the oxygen will be consumed very quickly so organisms that are deep inside the filter will live in an anaerobic environment.

There is plenty of literature out there on nitrate removal. Just search for the term denitrification on the internet. If you need more detailed info I can give you the references of a couple of neat environmental engineering textbooks.

i know of a link that is a diagram/description of a unit called a de-nitrator. the only problem with anaerobic bacteria is the sulfur that it emits. so, they suggest that you run the water return, from your de-nitrator, through an open topped container with a bubblestone to expell the sulfur before it reaches your tank. the bubbler part of the de-nitrator diagram is the only unattractive part and the reason why i havent constructed one yet. plus, the flow rates are less than 2 gallons per hour! but, ive heard that they work very well once you have "tuned" them!

found it! :http://digitalcheese.ca/gallery/album11

Ok, so where are the plans for this thing? If I can build a nitrogen atmosphere dry glove box, I can certainly tool plastic - it works up very well and cleanly.

?????????????? I love to build things. THis sounds neat!

Reading material is an exciting proposition - I can never pass up an opportunity to learn something!!!!! What would you recommend?????

Sulfide is a concern in wastewater treatment plants; however, I would not worry that much about it, the sulfate concentration of your aquarium water is not high enough to produce enough sulfide to affect the pH of the aquarium and even less to deteriorate the air of your house.

Microorganisms prefer to consume nitrate because it is more energy efficient, they would only use up sulfate when nitrate is depleted (and that will never happen in your aquarium).