Alfagrog for reducing Nitrates?

[Aqua sobriquet]

The problem though was always 'contact time' and 'oxygenation levels'. Hitting that sweet spot of slow enough flow to allow the bacteria to do their 'job' with enough airation was hard. We would mostly resort to a huge airstone in one of the sumps. The amount of times I've wondered how this could be incorporated into a canister filter.....



Cheers

Shaun

Is this where the idea of trickle filters for home aquaria came from? Designs I've seen also have a small anaerobic chamber as well. Do many folks still use trickle filters?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

The problem though was always 'contact time' and 'oxygenation levels'. Hitting that sweet spot of slow enough flow to allow the bacteria to do their 'job' with enough airation was hard. We would mostly resort to a huge airstone in one of the sumps. The amount of times I've wondered how this could be incorporated into a canister filter.....&....Is this where the idea of trickle filters for home aquaria came from? Designs I've seen also have a small anaerobic chamber as well. Do many folks still use trickle filters?

It wasn't me, it was Shaun ("Greg's Peas"), he is proper micro-biologist. But to answer the question, yes and no, this type of trickle filter, with an aerobic trickle tower and anaerobic (Jaubert, Berlin etc) plenum, had a bit of vogue with Marine aquarists in the late 90's - early 2000's, but went out of fashion to some degree, partially because it was difficult to balance the aerobic/anaerobic systems.

I'm not sure whether "deep sand beds" are in or out at the moment. I think a protein skimmer and "Live Rock" is today's favoured method for marines, but I wouldn't be that surprised if trickle filters made a come-back for marines.

For fresh water tanks planted converting all of the NH2 to NO3 aerobically is a good idea, and trickle filters are the best filters at doing this (due to their huge gas exchange capacity), from earlier in the thread:

Personally I don't think there is any point in closed cell plenums, de-nitrifying coils etc. They are really fiddly to get right, and in my opinion it is much better to try and keep all the filter material aerobic and use plants to mop up the NO3.....

Trickle filters aren't as widely used as they should be, but a HOB filter has some of the advantages, and these have become more popular recently in the UK, with a lot of people using the "Azoo Mignon" HOB on their Nanos.

cheers DArrel

 

[Aqua sobriquet]

Sorry for the mix up Darrel but thanks for the information! 😀 I think one of the reasons TF are not more common is that they are not an off the shelf item. Expense and understanding how they work also plays a part. Until the automatic overflow (weir) came about most folks also thought they had to have their tank drilled to use a TF.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Until the automatic overflow (weir) came about most folks also thought they had to have their tank drilled to use a TF.

People tend to associate them with sumps, but in some-ways over-tank trickle filters are a lot more straight forward.

I think one of the reasons TF are not more common is that they are not an off the shelf item.

I'm sure your right about them not being "off the shelf" item as well. I think a canister filter becomes an automatic choice for a lot of people just because they are "plug & play".

My personal preference would always be an over-tank planted trickle filter, a "deBruyn" type filter for small tanks <http://www.aka.org/UserFiles/File/debruyn_filter.pdf> or this type for larger tanks.

<http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19431>

They have phenomenal biological filtration capacity, but the down side is that the trickle of running water isn't to everyone's taste.

cheers Darrel