Take THAT nitrates! Multifaceted attack proving successful.

[knifegill]

My 55g is slightly overstocked which means fully stocked to most people. (5" platysilurus mucosus, 3" acanthicus adonis, 3" angelfish, 4" jurupari, 3" brachyrhamdia meesi, two mollies, a giant betta, a colombian ramshorn snail and a 4" gold dust bichir) It used to get nitrAtes as high as 40ppm by the end of the week. While some of the fish are growing and will be moved out in a while anyway, it seemed prudent to do something besides more and more water changes all the live long day. I also really wanted to play with denitrification techniques. So here's what I've got going on in there:

Anaerobic snowglobe with fishnet exchange medium:

Flask sandbed hidden in HOB filter, removed for pic. This is just getting to be established:

Hair algae and guppy grass monster ball:
If you know anything about hair algae and what it does to natural bodies of water, you'll understand it's power!

Pothos AND big Willow branch:
(willows added today)

Bundle of willow branches:

My goal? 0 Nitrates. I believe it can be done without expensive substrate and thick planting. These are my first efforts. I will still be doing my 50% weekly water changes on schedule, this is supplemental. Nitrates are at 5ppm today, lower than ever before. I hope to see a continued downward trend ensue. Wish me luck! I'll probably need it.

 

[GhostShrimpMan]

Nice! The only technique I recognize are the pothos from FireMedic's success.

Will google hair algae's power now. And the flask and snowglobe are quite like nothing I've ever seen. Original ideas?

Quite the lineup!

 

[mike_sema]

cool idea

 

[knifegill]

Yes, as far as I can remember they are original ideas. Just modifications to existing ideas, really. I mean, sand bed in a flask came from the idea of modular sand beds. I thought a few extra inches of depth in the sand could make up for its small footprint. The snowglobe is from reading up on sewage plants and how pressurized systems function better. So there's a slowly decomposing massivore pellet in the middle of that sand and anaerobic microbes are busy at work using nitrates to digest it as the products diffuse through the mesh I have wrapped around the lid/plug.

cool idea

Thanks. Which one?!

 

[GhostShrimpMan]

Very cool! Unfortunately all I can find on hair algae's power is how ugly and annoying it is, and how to get rid of it. I assume it sucks up nitrates like a sponge?

 

[JK47]

I am at 0ppm nitrate on my pleco tank but it's an auquaponics hybrid.. You said no heavy planting I can't play

We need to get you a digital TDS meter.. GL bro

 

[papawoody]

good luck ! keep us posted ! once everything is settled lets see if you can get away with less water changes ...

 

[m1ste2tea]

your HOB planter is probably doing the most denitrification in that tank. The pothos plant grows great in just about any light and its CO2 absorbtion is not dictated by your tank water. I have a riparium with a few of the pothos plants and the Nitrates stay lower than in my planted tank despite a similar stock load.

 

[knifegill]

Very cool! Unfortunately all I can find on hair algae's power is how ugly and annoying it is, and how to get rid of it. I assume it sucks up nitrates like a sponge?

Yes, it is a beast about using suspended nutrients of all sorts, including nitrates.

I am at 0ppm nitrate on my pleco tank but it's an auquaponics hybrid.. You said no heavy planting I can't play

We need to get you a digital TDS meter.. GL bro

Won't be necessary. I'm not skipping any water changes just because I've managed to stabilize one parameter. I prefer to keep it fresh instead of letting it spiral into a stable, frail mess.

good luck ! keep us posted ! once everything is settled lets see if you can get away with less water changes ..

Again, not even remotely my intentions. I stock and plan everything so I have only one fish day. I will be doing 50% water changes on this tank once a week no matter what else happens. Letting it stagnate is too dangerous with stock like this.

your HOB planter is probably doing the most denitrification in that tank. The pothos plant grows great in just about any light and its CO2 absorbtion is not dictated by your tank water. I have a riparium with a few of the pothos plants and the Nitrates stay lower than in my planted tank despite a similar stock load.

You may very well be right. And if that's the case, I'm still happy with the results. I just added the pothos...yesterday I think. I guess I should have checked my nitrates before adding the plant. Don't take that hair algae too lightly, however. It is the very same species that forms yellow bubbly mats in ponds and lakes. A true menace to water nutrient content. A ball of it kept the nitrates below 10ppm in a 30 gallon tank with over 100 baby crayfish for weeks on end with daily feeding. Think of it as an in-tank algae scrubber.

 

[mussbu]

Superb. I'm reading a great book (while my tank cycles) about this, and how the author does a 50% water change every 6 months. She accomplishes this by using a soil/gravel bed with many plants in the aquarium. The exact opposite of what we are taught by most sources and 'experts'. This substrate appearantly uses 'denitrification' that changes Nitrates to N2 gas. I'm not sure if it's the plants that are causing this, the soil, or a combination of the two: "denitrification only takes place in environments where oxygen consumption exceeds the rate of oxygen supply, such as in some soils[15] and groundwater,[16] wetlands, poorly ventilated corners of the ocean, and in seafloor sediments" [Wiki].

I'm wondering if you will get the same results without the plants, just using the soil. I'm thinking of incorporating some of these ideas too. Maybe in my wet/dry sump (?), or is this a too oxygen-rich spot for denitrification to occur? Maybe a HOB filter is a good spot if not directly in the main aquarium itself.

I wish I paid more attention and remembered more about chemistry....

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR EXPERIMENT and keep us posted.