new idea for a filter

[ctenophors rule]

would it be possible to make an anoxic alga filter? or maybe an anoxic cyanophyte filter?

my idea was to take a container about one tenth the size of the normal tank, then put a small airline tube, just enough to transfer dirty water to clean water, not enough to stir up container. then you add the alga or archeabacteria and wait till it gets big enough to make a general improvement in water quality via nitrogen fixation. finaly atach filter and viola cleaner water .

i got the idea from an article i read about mudskippers building mud holes with specific chambers made to harvest said algae and archeabacteria to cleen water.

btw i trust the source but it seems out of this world.....is this true???

thanks .....tommy

 

[TheH]

Most algaes will require O2 during the night. Also, they will produce O2 during the day, making it difficult to keep things anoxic.

I am not clear on why you want this anoxic situation? How would it be better than a normal refugium?

 

[ctenophors rule]

i am just wondering if it were possible, i am thinking ways to combat dead zones, before all the life forms are dead for a science experament.

i dont know if it would be better per say, though i have read that cyanophytes are better at fixing nitrogenous compounds than algas.

btw i wrongly classified them as an alga species when they are actualy an eubacteria....sorry

 

[rexdenton]

Not sure I fully understand your filter, but in the 'old days' it was standard practice to elevate the sand bed above a dark 'dead zone' devoid of sand (raised via egg-crate with a screen on top, and the aragonite media on top of that). (From there, an undergravel filter was also commonly used.) The art has obviously evolved a lot since that time, and this plenum system is no longer popular, mostly because the dead-space plenum area was considered a dead-zone for lots of nitrates, too...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The concern with anything anoxic is the formation of toxic hydrogen sulfide by reduction of sulfate in the seawater. Unless you avoided that, such a filter would be a problem. In sulfur and carbon denitrators, if you let it become too anaerobic, you will get such H2S formation as well.

This has more:

Hydrogen Sulfide and the Reef Aquarium
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-12/rhf/index.php