AZ-NO3 Explained
AZ-NO3 Explained
Hi Mike G
Questions often arise as to exactly what is in the AZ-NO3 Denitrifier Product.
Trying to explain scientifically what the product contains is often nothing more than an exercise in frustration and total confusion. Partly because we cannot disclose our exact formulations so therefore must use parallel like kind examples and partly because there are many separate formulations and processes that eventually lead to the final product.
If someone asked what do you like on your hamburger and you said ketchup. You know what ketchup is, or do you really?
Is it really necessary for you to know why Del Monte uses Pineapple Vinegar instead of White Vinegar or how they manufacture the Pineapple Vinegar they use?
Vinegar is only one ingredient in a long list of ingredients that must be formulated and processed prior to making the ketchup product you are using.
Each of the major blending ingredients used in the final manufacture of the AZ-NO3 Denitrifier product are FDA approved and certified as non toxic to marine organisms. LD50 = ZERO.
In addition, if you have ever used any brand of frozen fish food cubes in your aquaria, there is nothing you are adding to your aquaria that you have not already added, or that does not exist in the aquaria already as naturally occurring.
As ironic as this may seem, there are no specific activating ingredients in the AZ-NO3 product necessary for most aquaria. AZ-NO3 is merely a food product geared to specific naturally occurring organisms that are already present in most aquaria, while at the same time being distasteful to those organisms that we consider to be detrimental in a marine or reef aquarium.
However, we do include Cozymase as an intermediary food to allow the formation of the naturally occurring enzymes in aquaria where they have not yet become established.
Although I have never done this on a public forum before in the history of the company, the question seems to arise quite often as to exactly what is in that white bottle with the AZ-NO3 label on it, and is it safe?
The actual final contents are listed on the bottle:
Concentrated Ptyalin Hydrolyzed Massecuite, Sodium Chloride, MG Aqueous and Cozymase Enzymes.
Although there are numerous ingredients consumed in processing each of the above ingredients, only those listed find their way into the bottle or your aquarium.
Letââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s take the ingredients one at a time, and Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ll try to explain what each one is.
Concentrated Ptyalin Hydrolyzed Massecuite:
Concentrated, means the bulk of the product is as dense as it can be manufactured without turning into a solid. Some of you may remember when the early versions of AZ-NO3 would form crystals in the bottle. This was before we installed state of the art steam kettles for processing.
Ptyalin is the specially formulated liquid we use in blending the powdered Massecuite. Ptyalin is a contributing factor in rendering the food product distasteful to undesired organisms.
Hydrolyzed, simply stated means adding a liquid, usually water to a dry mix. In our case the liquid is Ptyalin and it is infused with the powdered Massecuite under both pressure and a controlled heat, it is then cooked so to speak in a steam kettle until the desired specific gravity is attained.
Massecuite, is a food service term, moreso than a scientific term, for the base food product that comprises the bulk of the AZ-NO3 product. The term Massecuite is fairly generic and can refer to any number of similar kind products. We chose the generic term Massequite in order to help keep our base formula secret. But even so, it still undergoes some very special processes that render it suitable for our purposes. Massequite is a very important ingredient and considered an essential food product required by the active enzyme maltase that functions as a cellular respirator of each nitrate molecule.
But what is Massequite exactly? It is a carbohydrate, one of the oligosaccharides!
What it is NOT is alcohol or cane sugar, both of which can cause invertase to bloom in an aquarium. Although they too fall into the oligosaccharides grouping, we consider the results, invertase, melzitos, raffinose and gentianose to be detrimental to the aquaria. This is why we take such great pains to insure our product does not cause these bacterium to proliferate in your aquarium.
OK, on with the next ingredient listing:
Sodium Chloride, we use only the most pure, nitrate free, lab grade sodium chloride we can buy, it contains absolutely no other additives. It is more pure and cleaner than the sodium chloride used to manufacture reef aquarium salts.
I will have to take MG Aqueous and Cozymase Enzymes together.
Cozymase comes from a group of dormant, very hardy enzymes termed dehydrogenases. They are initially cultured in a commercial lab. The lab has never disclosed their actual processes to me, but Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m sure itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s not much unlike most other labs that raise cultures. In any case, before they ship these enzymes to me, they are encapsulated in a protective coating, this coating is MG Aqueous and dissolves when the enzymes are added to the formula imparting the bluish tint to the product.
Different lot numbers will have different degrees of this tint remaining in the product depending upon how many times the product passes through the filtration system before ending up in a bottle. The packaging system itself cycles continuously. The liquid passes through the filters enroute to the bottle filling heads. At the filler heads are pressure control valves that maintain a constant pressure in the filling system. When no bottle is under the filling head, a by-pass valve sends the liquid through a return line back to the vat where it remixes with the liquid in the vat. So essentially, the lighter the colorant remaining in the product, the more times it has passed through the multi-stage filtering system before being bottled.
TTUL
Gary
