Advanced Bio/carbon Ca rector

[saveafish]

Randy, please chime in on this.

So my new neighbor is a Bio Chemist. During an invite she got very intrigued by my reefs. As we got into a very in depth talk about bio and the chemistry on it. An idea came up with why not combining a lot into one aspect. Here is how the heads came together.
Dosing a carbon solution such as Vinegar, into a reactor such as one made for Co2. Not using Co2 but a meter and dosing Carbon ( Vinegar ) Into the reactor where you normally would send the Co2 in it.. It would cause an robic bacteria to cultivate as long with bringing the PH level down to a trace element solvable level. This would recirculated in the same way a Co2 reactor would do. Though over time The PH would stabilize to a higher PH level. Her thoughts would in it would drip out as about 7.8-8.0. To concur this. The reactor would be filled with the normal media and tank water. The recirculating pump would have to run for 2 days. After that the meter would start off at 5ml a day and have to be set for the center of the light photo period. After 2-3 days it would start producing high Ca a long with reducing Nitrates.

Any input on this?

 

[behlke]

Interesting idea and I will tag along. First of, I am not an expert, so I could be wrong. That said, I see two sides of this based on flow though the reactor, not the recirculation. I think you will need to greatly reduce the amount of flow through the reactor to permit the anaerobic bacteria to colonize the reactor because new water in the reactor will always be oxygenated water, and then the conditions will not be right for the bacteria. On the other side, if you drop the flow through the reactor to create the anaerobic conditions, which I think will need to be next to nothing, then there will be no new input of nitrate-rich water to feed the bacteria. At this point the bacteria will die and release all of the waste back into the water. As I said I am not an expert, and I think it would be a neat experiment for you to conduct.

 

[Tigé21v]

Sounds like pretty much the way a sulfur denitrator works. Sulfur is the food source for the bacteria instead of vodka.

 

[SoLiD]

Interesting concept. Any updates?