jlinzmaier
Premium Member
none of this answered my question.
chuck: when you eat a sandwich, and go back to work, no one tells you that you are sneaking a sandwich to the office, (in your belly?) so how is this the case with bacteria? Why do we not say that "bacteria" is leaching into the tank? Cause it is. If it carries carbon with it then so what? In that case we would have to argue that a bacteria bloom is adding (leaching) N and P back into the display tank. But we don't, so why do we assume that carbon is entering and that the bloom is not just the "smoke" from the reactors "fire?"
but I'm just curious, I am probably completly wrong.![]()
Well for starters the carbon source likely wouldn't be visible in a cloud like presentation perfectly representing a well known and documnted occurrance known as a bacterial bloom unless the reactor was shredding the pellets to 10-100 micron size or they were dissolving enough to create enough tiny buoyant material which would stay suspended in the water column. Since I have yet to hear of any instances in which the pellets were significantly reduced in size and the cloudiness was seen immediately thereafter I'm going to stick with the theory that the cloud is a cloud of bacterial overgrowth generated by the release of carbon from the pellets.
The bacteria certainly can release N, P, and C back into the water column if/when they die. This is why the manufacturers of the pellets and articles on liquid carbon source dosing indicate strong skimming to remove the bacteria from the water column.
But we don't, so why do we assume that carbon is entering and that the bloom is not just the "smoke" from the reactors "fire?"
You've baffled me with this one. This odd description could mean a lot of things but what I think you're trying to say is "Why are we assuming that the pellets are releasing a carbon source causing the cloudiness and that the cloudiness isn't just bacteria being sloughed from the pellets"? Please clarify if my interpretation is wrong.
As I said earlier, there is potential for bacterial sloughing but the formation of bacterial strings and masses is what gets sloughed off into the DT. Many people aren't even able to see the tiny bits and pieces of bacterioplankton that are continually generated and sent to the tank. A bacterial bloom is very common and easily identified by a white uniform cloud throughout the entire water column and usually doesn't appear as strings or masses. It presents just like it sounds - like a white cloud that takes several days (or more) to dissipate (duration of resolution is dependant on many variables).
Jeremy
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