Let me just say this, I am all for going skimmer less. I did it years ago, and I would do it again. I will be building a scrubber as soon as all the parts turn up in the post. The only problem I am seeing now is what happens to all this bacterial plankton after it dies off, does it just settle to the bottom to be consumed by something else, does it release nutrient back into the water column. The basis of carbon dosing is to skim bacteria out after they have done their job, therefor removing N&P. I am worried that this is not happening with an ATS and no skimmer. Maybe SM can add his knowledge on this subject. I know this system works great, and I’m not questioning the effectiveness of an ATS, I just want to get it all worked out.
Even the detritus that everyone is so anal about trapping with filter socks and siphoning out of the sump and blowing off the rock can be left alone
http://algaescrubber.net/forums/show...light=detritus
I'm sure the plankton you are talking about falls higher on the chain than this stuff. I wouldn't worry - AT ALL
I know Santa Monica has some good info for leebee on the subject.
In the mean time, I thought this was a rather neat little learning tool.
http://coolclassroom.org/micro_test/...ons/ML/ml.html
It is eaten by microbes even before it dies. Just like in the ocean, where there is no skimmer.what happens to all this bacterial plankton after it dies off
Sorry to go on about this, but I’m still not sure. A fish tank is a closed ecosystem that we add food to year after year. With no water changes and no means of nutrient export, this has to build up somewhere. It might be at a microbial level, or in the animals and algae that inhabit our tanks. A certain amount of nitrate will convert to free nitrogen through anaerobic bacterial action, and phosphate will absorb into the rocks and sand. The use of an ATS(or a macro refugium, carbon dosing) will be the only way I can see of exporting N&P, as this is something actually being removed. If you are putting food in at one end, something has to remove it at the other, it can’t just keep building up.
Of cause, comparing our little glass boxes to the oceans of the world is a very huge stretch, but they are part of a closed system also, the Earth. Every element on Earth is just re cycled, nothing new is added, the Iron in your steak probably welled out of the ground a billion years ago, and passed through many animals before it got to your plate.
As I stated before, I am an ATS believer, every tank should have one, but I think more is going on than what meets the eye.
In my opinion, this is where the balance thing comes in. If you can find and maintain the balance of the microbial loop then everything works as it should and gets recycled or removed. For someone like me who feeds on the heavy side, I feel I tend to form a buildup in the DOC/DOM level of the cycle. I don't have enough bacteria to handle the job as quickly as I would like and eventually I see issues I feel are related to a DOC buildup. This is also fairly normal under aquarium conditions. We normally only have a fraction of the amount of bacteria per volume of water as the ocean does, but this can vary greatly from tank to tank, some can have near NSW levels but it is rare.
This is why I use purigen to reduce the DOC levels in my tank to get back to the balance where bacteria can then handle the rest. Easy solution for me I know, stop feeding so much, but I like fat happy fish and I can't help it. Since every tank is different and every person has different habits so it comes down to understanding what issues to look for and how to correct them in order to keep the cycle balanced and working efficiently.
Food in = algae out.nutrient export, this has to build up somewhere
Aquariums normally have about the same number of bacteria per unit volume as ocean water. What you don't have, is sediment subduction, and therefore unless metals are removed from aquariums by algae or other means, metals will accumulate.We normally only have a fraction of the amount of bacteria per volume of water as the ocean does
This article seems to counter your statement. Look at Table 1. Bacterial counts from authentic marine water, various control samples, and several reef tanks. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2011/3/aafeature Oddly though, all the tanks that had a fraction of the bacteria of NSW all had sandbeds, and the ones that were closer to NSW did not.
Yes I've seen that, but I was going off of marine biology studies I've read in the past. More numbers that I should have saved.
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