conflicting help from my LFS
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i found this in an article.
To achieve total waste disposal in your reef tank using anaerobic bacteria, your tank should be prepared with a static cavity of water below the substrate. This is best prepared using undergravel filter plates to create an anaerobic environment in the cavity under the coral sand. There is no water movement through the cavity just motionless water, so don’t use the uplifts.
Fly Screen Layer
Coarse/ Medium Coral Rubble
U/G Plates create a Static Cavity
Fine/ Medium Coral Sand
Place your undergravel plates on the bottom of the aquarium and add enough saltwater to cover the plates well. Above the filter plates place three centimetres of course and medium coral rubble. A layer of fly screen should be placed above next to prevent fish and inverts burrowing down into the anaerobic layer. Finally on top of the fly screen lay a two to three centimetre layer of fine and medium coral sand. This completes the preparation of the substrate allowing the development of anaerobic bacteria, in the lower layer of coral rubble, which convert nitrates back to gaseous nitrogen. Excessive nitrates are the most common cause for failure in marine systems and can be avoided with this system. Water naturally exchanges between the static cavity and the upper tank, creating an equilibrium with virtually no nitrates.
There is also a second benefit in that the lower pH below the substrate will slowly dissolve the calcium carbonate providing good buffering and an exceptionally stable pH.
does it look correct. and is it wortk me sucking the gravel out of my tank and putting this sort of thing in.
cheers
To achieve total waste disposal in your reef tank using anaerobic bacteria, your tank should be prepared with a static cavity of water below the substrate. This is best prepared using undergravel filter plates to create an anaerobic environment in the cavity under the coral sand. There is no water movement through the cavity just motionless water, so don’t use the uplifts.
Fly Screen Layer
Coarse/ Medium Coral Rubble
U/G Plates create a Static Cavity
Fine/ Medium Coral Sand
Place your undergravel plates on the bottom of the aquarium and add enough saltwater to cover the plates well. Above the filter plates place three centimetres of course and medium coral rubble. A layer of fly screen should be placed above next to prevent fish and inverts burrowing down into the anaerobic layer. Finally on top of the fly screen lay a two to three centimetre layer of fine and medium coral sand. This completes the preparation of the substrate allowing the development of anaerobic bacteria, in the lower layer of coral rubble, which convert nitrates back to gaseous nitrogen. Excessive nitrates are the most common cause for failure in marine systems and can be avoided with this system. Water naturally exchanges between the static cavity and the upper tank, creating an equilibrium with virtually no nitrates.
There is also a second benefit in that the lower pH below the substrate will slowly dissolve the calcium carbonate providing good buffering and an exceptionally stable pH.
does it look correct. and is it wortk me sucking the gravel out of my tank and putting this sort of thing in.
cheers
Jauberts plenum method without about 75% of the info you need to make it work. Yes you can make something like that work, but you can also make a dsb (deep sand bed) do the same thing. I think a dsb is easier to set up than a plenum, but to do it right you need to get better instructions than that, and you do not deviate from them one little bit.
I think it's harder to setup than a Berlin method tank, but for sure can work. I don't think it's as suitable for beginners though. You still should use a skimmer though.
I think it's harder to setup than a Berlin method tank, but for sure can work. I don't think it's as suitable for beginners though. You still should use a skimmer though.
Not that I'm pushing canisters but jammerz, with only a sponge and charcoal of course it's going to be a nitrate machine. You might as well use wadded toilet paper then. You have to use some form of ceramic bio-filter media in it to house aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. The latter converts nitrate into NO2 gas which escapes via the water surface. Seachem Matrix works awesome for this. http://shop.petsmart.com/product/2534374302030059/2534374302030141/845524441809609.htm You can throw it right in the trays.
I also have a DSB which helps eliminate nitrates as it houses anaerobic bacteria also.
I also have a DSB which helps eliminate nitrates as it houses anaerobic bacteria also.
I don't believe you can get anaerobic bacteria to grow in a cannister. I think the rate of flow is just too high, and so you'll never get to a level of oxygen deprivation anywhere.
You know the disadvantage of 'pure' Berin setups is that they do accumulate nitrate anyway, so adding a cannister is not necassarily a great sin. Live rock, and other forms of filtration will also produce nitrate. If the tank is very low stocked anaerobic areas on/in the live rock will reduce this to nitrogen, but I doubt that is working for anyone here. Thus you must export nitrate by
1. denitrafication filter (complex)
2. algal removal
3.deep sand bed, plenum or similar
4 . water changes
I would advise most beginners to use these preferentially 4,2,3,1 with 4 being the easiest.
You know the disadvantage of 'pure' Berin setups is that they do accumulate nitrate anyway, so adding a cannister is not necassarily a great sin. Live rock, and other forms of filtration will also produce nitrate. If the tank is very low stocked anaerobic areas on/in the live rock will reduce this to nitrogen, but I doubt that is working for anyone here. Thus you must export nitrate by
1. denitrafication filter (complex)
2. algal removal
3.deep sand bed, plenum or similar
4 . water changes
I would advise most beginners to use these preferentially 4,2,3,1 with 4 being the easiest.