Carbon dosing - method testing started

in all the activity I missed your post sorry Cheryl

bio pellets are the carbon source provider
not just the media for bacteria to live on
its a solid carbon source, it will degrade due to utilisation
and thus would need periodic refreshing once the QTY is noticeably diminished

 

I've not done any scientific experiments. There are various forms of denitrator pellets. They basically do nothing more than quality LR. These polymers do help (provided one has a quality skimmer).

Binding is useful, but one has to remember that this is not and N or P export. Binding P or N using Chaetomorpha can be useful. However, if you don't actually rip it out and remove it, it's STILL IN THE SYSTEM. It's just temporarily "locked up".

With algae, you have to remove it. With bio-pellets, you have to skim it out.

 

Thank you sirs, for the break down of the basic chemistry. I will now change my profile name to clueless.

 

Thank you Curtis

I do like this idea m2434
and I reckon once we have a few people agreeing, which tank looks to be doing the best after a period of time
then manual removal of the remaining algae, whilst still feeding tank and continuing to run the different methods, to asses which tank is then maintained the best, does make a very natural progression to part 2 of this experiment

thank you for the suggestion

Steve

 

I have read that some pellets (not sure about the ones used here) start colonizing bacteria on the surface to the point where they become like oatmeal or a texture of that sort, which then requires more flow to continue tumbling the pellets within the reactor. The aggressive tumbling causes the bacteria to fall off, which is then picked up by the skimmer. Is there any evidence of this occurring, or do they still look like little hard pellets? Is this the theory, or do they release carbon into the watercolumn like vodka/BF?

I'm a bit nieve on pellets...

 

I have been using Ecobak pellets by Warner Marine for almost 6 months, and have not noticed any change in texture or size for that matter. But I have noticed a change in how they tumble, once the bacteria formed on the surface of the pellet.

 

there is no evidence of this happening on my pellets as yet
but its only day 6
I have also read accounts of the pellets starting to clog and getting a sticky film on them that sloughs off or may need to be cleaned off and then re set in reactor ( some people believe that a slower tumble rate causes this situation, and that pellets sat still are more likely to be affected in this manner than pellets in motion)

basically the bacteria colonise the surface of the pellet, the carbon source helps the bacteria to increase in number
the tumbling action helps to slough the bacteria off the pellets
and the resulting water carried bacteria along with what they absorbed in nitrates and phosphate are removed by the skimmer
thats the principle in a nutshell I believe

 

Bacteria grows a faster than algae though.


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Some people believe pellets release carbon. I don't know. It makes sense though if the pellets are biodegrading and sloshing off bacteria, the bacteria could be taking some carbon along for the ride.


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I guess thats the essence of my question... do the pellets release carbon to the watercolumn, or do the pellets host the bacteria, which is then sloshed off?