experiment

[boxfishpooalot]

Hey Randy,

What I did in a small .5gallon container was put in about 1 teaspoon of sugar. The container had about 1/2" of ditritus on the bottom of it and the rest filled with saltwater from the tank.

When I added the sugar the next moring the water was completely foggy! I suspect this is a bacterial bloom? The pods that were in there apear to not move anymore(dead?) and some worms are alive at the bottom. Although to my surprise, the ditritus is half gone!!??

I suspect that the dirt decomposed from the bacteria, and they uptook much of it in their bodys.

Also, there appears to be bubbles coming out from the bottom and sitting at the top of the container surface of water(denitrification?)

This experiment seems neat, but educational. Perhaps all that sand beds are lacking really is a carbon source, with appropriate skimming to remove the bacteria growth. I do not know.

I would like to hear your opinion on this.

Tia Box

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The pods probably died due to low O2. Yes, the bacteria bloomed, and consumed O2 and possibly nitrate and maybe even some sulfate to consume the sugar.

 

[boxfishpooalot]

actually after looking at the ditritus it actually is not half gone,but maybee a little gone. I tested the nitrates in there and its roughly 150 ppm! One thing I noticed was that the container I used had some kalk stains on the inside. But after that test it completely dissolved the calcium carbonate?strange.

So, I dumped it out and rinsed it. I then took some "clean" tank water and put some sugar in. When I awoke, same thing, bacteria bloom. Tested the nitrates and they are 110ppm range. There are no bubbles this time and no ditritus.

So whats this tell me? Perhaps that there is siginifigant dissolved organics for them to feed on in the water? Why would the nitrates become high with "clean" water, the same way as dirty water with ditritus in it?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It just tells me that there are adequate nutrients in your water to support a bacterial bloom.