Reef Central Online Community - View Single Post - Method to improve biological nitrate reduction?

blasterman789 · 12/14/2017, 05:02 PM

Was at the LFS store the other day......noted the typical tanks of bulk 'Live Rock'.

I then teased the manager about it being Live Rock, but they had no fish in the tank. This, in my opinion really reduces the bacteria load. It's better than dry rock, but might still have to ramp up when put under biologic load. A lot of LFS put fish nobody wants in their LR tanks just for this reason; big damsels, etc.

Then, likely due to too many cans of Monster that afternoon the bug zapper above my brain went off. Why doesn't the same apply for nitrogen reducing bacteria? Those buggers as we know take a much longer time to establish and are more fussy about their conditions (lower water flow, etc).

Take a bucket of tank water, fill it full of LR or chunks, give it just enough circulation so there aren't dead spots (we don't want hydrogen sulfide), and then seed that sucker with lots of potassium nitrate. Keep the levels screaming high at 100ppm. Think this would establish nitrogen reducers better than in a tank?

12/14/2017, 05:02 PM	#1
blasterman789 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 365	Method to improve biological nitrate reduction? Was at the LFS store the other day......noted the typical tanks of bulk 'Live Rock'. I then teased the manager about it being Live Rock, but they had no fish in the tank. This, in my opinion really reduces the bacteria load. It's better than dry rock, but might still have to ramp up when put under biologic load. A lot of LFS put fish nobody wants in their LR tanks just for this reason; big damsels, etc. Then, likely due to too many cans of Monster that afternoon the bug zapper above my brain went off. Why doesn't the same apply for nitrogen reducing bacteria? Those buggers as we know take a much longer time to establish and are more fussy about their conditions (lower water flow, etc). Take a bucket of tank water, fill it full of LR or chunks, give it just enough circulation so there aren't dead spots (we don't want hydrogen sulfide), and then seed that sucker with lots of potassium nitrate. Keep the levels screaming high at 100ppm. Think this would establish nitrogen reducers better than in a tank?