question about water in sump

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Scubarod

Gambusia
MFK Member
Feb 21, 2007
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Stoon
does the amount of time the raw water spends in the sump biomedia dictate the nitrate/nitrite absorption ?
 
I don't think so. Anything dissolved in water will diffuse throughout the liquid until the concentration is the same everywhere. Then you have pumps moving the water around all the time, so that makes the concentration of ammonia/nitrite the same everywhere.

Then, water in your sump isn't flowing by so fast that BB can't absorb ammonia/nitite. Within reason, I don't think this is a concern in FW tanks.

Now, I HAVE heard of flow through a sump being too fast for protein skimmers to work well. But, we don't run skimmers.
 
The nitrites aren't absorbed. The are eaten and the resulting waste is nitrates. They in turn are eaten by other bacteria and turned in to hatmless gasses.
 
Thanks for replies
 
Nitrites become nitrates if you have the proper bacteria and water conditions present. Once you have a properly cycled and balance water cycle, you should never register nitrite readings.

Nitrates are different as they will remain in the tank until they are removed by water changes, plants which you then cull or discard, materials (like resins) that adsorb nitrate and so forth.

If your question is about resin media in the sump that adsorbs the nitrate, then as others have stated, it will be adsorbed at a relatively constant rate as long as the resins are capable (not saturated.) Once they are saturated, they will cease adsorbing.
 
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as stated already.....the water in your tank will have the same concentration of ammonia/nitrite/nitrates...so as long as you have the necessary bacteria colonies present in your system, it won't matter how fast or slow your water is moving in your sump....now mechanical filtration is a different story but this topic has been beaten to death.
 
Mechanical filtration only matters if you need your water to be completely invisible. That is, unless you clean it several times a day. Once the waste ends up in your sock, or whatever, it just keeps rotting in your tank. Invisible stuff.
 
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