It's not the media that produces the harmful products, it's the fact that you are trying to make anaerobic conditions, which is the unsafe part. Any anaerobic area with any surface area in it will produce harmful materials with incorrect levels of DOCs.
DIY Denitrator Idea
- Thread starter Desdinova
- Start date
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolved_organic_carbon
if you run a protein skimmer you can eliminate the dissolved organic, this is why it's usually something on a saltwater setup i suppose. i wouldnt worry about hydrogen sulfide gas
according to this article
http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2008/11/hydrogen-sulfides.html
if you keep your tank areated with o2 it will nutralize the hydrogen sulfide through oxidation . it's only dangerous when your entire tank system becomes o2 depleted and full of nitrates.
if you run a protein skimmer you can eliminate the dissolved organic, this is why it's usually something on a saltwater setup i suppose. i wouldnt worry about hydrogen sulfide gas
according to this article
http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2008/11/hydrogen-sulfides.html
if you keep your tank areated with o2 it will nutralize the hydrogen sulfide through oxidation . it's only dangerous when your entire tank system becomes o2 depleted and full of nitrates.
Thanks for the info anarekist. I talked to SeaChem about their product and they're extremely confident in it's safety.
Some denitrators are more dangerous than others - or at least might seem to be. A deep sand bed, for instance, is not going to work the same way that the Pond Matrix will. They accomplish the same goal, but the chemical reactions are different, due to the composition of the media.
Some denitrators are more dangerous than others - or at least might seem to be. A deep sand bed, for instance, is not going to work the same way that the Pond Matrix will. They accomplish the same goal, but the chemical reactions are different, due to the composition of the media.
(1) Protein skimmers hardly work in freshwater, and (2) the issue exists with too many or too few DOCs, it is dangerous in either way.
It has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the media!! It has to do with anaerobic conditions with surface area. Hell, even an anaerobic stretch of pipe with no filling would cause this issue. The bacteria do not perform chemical reactions with the media at all, they just use the media to live on and has nothing to do with the products that they do or do not produce.
You can do whatever you want, but all the current knowledge says that you are not doing it safely.
I use a modular deep sand bed in my 55g and in my 75g Oscar tank, but I also have pothos and other plants on both and am not really in the mood to test how much work the sand is doing. Pothos and other plants stuck into your filters will do a screaming job of taking up excess nitrates. I think the plants are overall simpler, more entertaining and fool-proof. I do like the FW deep sand bed / any sand bed world, though. Fingernail clams and tubifex are pretty cool critters!
I just want to know what kind of oscars you have that ALLOW you to plant things...
I haven't tried sand with oscars, but they dig dig dig and then dig some more. Plants are toys that owner puts in my tank, so I can have fun digging them up!
My oscars are practically miners.
I haven't tried sand with oscars, but they dig dig dig and then dig some more. Plants are toys that owner puts in my tank, so I can have fun digging them up!
My oscars are practically miners.
From what I have read, terrestrial plants in emersed conditions seem to be the best way to "denitrate" safely. They're cheap (free if you can get a pothos cutting) and can be added to anywhere in the tank where they can hang. They have the added ability to look really nice, and if you start growing vegetables or other crops, can taste really good. They also take up limited tank/outoftank space, and require no cleaning after planting, just pruning.
Sounds great, but I don't have the experience to know what kind of area I would need to provide for an overstocked system (which is basically what any oscar-dedicated tank is...). I want a small and compact system that I can hide away somewhere. I'm considering a string of sponges as the mechanical filter intake for a 1300 GPH pump, which would push water through a Pond Matrix bio filter. I just can't seem to figure out how thorough sponges are. If they're 200 micron or something large like that, I'm not interested... but how do you figure that out? I have Hydro sponges now, but I never saw them as mechanical filters before... but they certainly keep my water clear and need to be replaced now and then. I love them.
