<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13417553#post13417553 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by miwoodar
I don't know who discovered it in the aquarium trade. I remember the first time I read a discussion on carbon dosing though. The subject was sugar. My first impression was that people were dumber than rocks for believing in such a thing. The chemistry side of it, well I can't tell you how that works. I imagine that the claims of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds being utilized as building blocks (DNA for one) by the bacteria is a good start though. Are the bacteria actively breaking down the NO3 and PO4 too? I imagine so. What is beyond there is beyond my little brain.
I work closely with many of the first persons to apply carbon dosing in the context of cleaning up hazardous waste in ground water. People in the industry used to laugh at the idea and ended up years behind the times. My company cleans up spills that would have traditionally taken 30 years in only 5 or 10 by pumping a few hundred thousand dollars of molasses into the ground....saving millions. We've used about a dozen different carbon sources. Molasses is most commonly used simply because it is usually the cheapest to use on a large scale. (I would not put molasses into my tank! Too many impurities and it's high in sulfur compounds!) We understand some of the processes as to how it works but unknowns definitely exist. We're growing bacteria just like reefers do...some of the bacteria happen to have the ability to break down chlorinated solvents.
