Tiny glass tubes for anaerobic bacteria?

[knifegill]

Just a thought. Don't know how viable it really is. I've got a vial of about fifty old medical glass tubes that I've "de-chamical-ed". They are 0.5-0.6mm inner diameter and 1.4-1.75mm outer diameter. About 2.5" long. I was thinking of simply bundling them up and leaving them somewhere in my filtration away from current. Would they just end up housing normal bb? Would the toxic output of anaerobic bacteria be too much?

 

[Danger_Chicken]

The key to anaerobic bac is no oxygen. So no current wont be enough if they are sitting out in the open, you'd need to bury them in a couple of inches of sand to make sure all the oxygen is depleted by the time the water reaches them. Also glass isn't the best for colonizing. It will hold bac, but since it's smooth instead of porus it doesn't have a lot of surface area compared to media like matrix or sand.

 

[knifegill]

Oh. So wait, then are my lava rock chunks already doing a little anaerobic dance anyway?

 

[Danger_Chicken]

maybe, where are they and how big are they?

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

It's well known that live rock in saltwater removes nitrates by anaerobic bacteria becuase the aerobic bacteria remove all the oxygen before it reaches the inner pores of the rock, it wouldn't surprise me if very porus lava rock will perform a similar function in freshwater.

 

[Danger_Chicken]

^ thats how matrix works

 

[boldtogether]

I would say that the glass would not make a good media for ANY bacteria. Medical glass by its very nature is resistant to any kind of bacteria adhering to it.

BTW, I have used lava rock very successfully in my tanks as BB media. The key is to keep the surface from clogging to the point where there is a "sloughing" of the zoogleal mass....BB colony. Also, lava rock can tend to break apart over time...certain types anyway. This is important to safeguard against as the resulting grains can foul pump impellers like sand. And as mentioned above, the lava rock in the tank, as decoration, is, in fact, excactly like live rock found in marine set-ups, only the BB is freshwater variety.
My 2¢