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Unread 01/02/2018, 06:22 PM   #20
Dan_P
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Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 1,432
Quote:
Originally Posted by bertoni View Post
I'm not sure why this matters. The end result is the consumption of nitrate, and I think we've all seen that dosing requires per-tank tuning.
I am not familiar with how one determines how much carbon to add to an aquarium but for aquaculture, the amount of carbohydrate added is based on the stoichiometric balance of C:N that is required by heterotrophs to assimilate all the nitrogen in the feed. I always assumed that dosing aquaria is more an empirical exercise, starting low and increasing. As you say, per-tank tuning. I will bet no one doses carbon to balance the C:N ratio in what they add to the tank. Would be an interesting experiment though.

As for heterotrophs consuming nitrate because we carbon dose, has this been proven in an aquarium this is what actually happens? Might another explanation be that nitrate production is minimized because of increased ammonia assimilation by hetertrophic bacteria and the nitrate already produced is simply converted to nitrogen by autotrophs?


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