Tunze Zeolith

[Ereefic]

I won a small container of Zeolith Rocks today at our local club meeting. I'm wondering if you have any more detailed instructions other than whats on the package?

I'm thinking of trying them but haven't really found much talk about the Tunze Zeolith or the people that use them.

Any additional info would be helpful.

 

[rvitko]

I use them, I use 2.1L (4 jars), in an Eheim 2217. It is a denitrating material that works best in a cannister with a slow turnover rate. The remainder of the Eheim is packed with Ehfimech, I could have used a much smaller Eheim like a 2213 but I had this one around.

 

[Ereefic]

So what kind of results would one expect to see from using the Zeolith rocks? How am I going to know if things are going right, or horribly wrong?

 

[rvitko]

Wrong would be nothing happens and that is a possibility. The media just cultures the bacteria that breaks down nitrate and under certain conditions that won't happen. If you get it right, in 4-6 weeks the nitrate levels will drop dramatically.

 

[Ereefic]

What type of 'conditions' would need to be present for these rocks 'not' to work? I have a Phosban reactor that I can run them in, would that work? And how much flow would be too much threw the rocks?

 

[rvitko]

You want a fairly low flow, I wouldn't have any more than 150 gph. The main condition is food- the bacteria need carbon. Most reefs have enough and don't need a food source but occasionally you need to use a carbon supplement.

 

[Ereefic]

These didn't work for me. Never saw any reduction in Nitrates, in the tank or water exiting the rocks.

 

[rvitko]

What nitrate test are you using? Keep in mind most hobbyists tests test for total N not Nitrate, you can get 50 ppm with a Tetra kit and get 2 ppm with a Lamotte.

Besides this I can't guarantee it will work, it is a bacteria dependent cycle and the flow has to be just right and the food sources have to be present. I have had great results with it, I consistently test <2ppm Nitrate on a Machery Nagel kit and when i started I had >100ppm. In my case the secret might be that the volume of media is great so aerobes can strip the oxygen and their decomposition produces a carbon sourcee enabling it to work.

 

[Ereefic]

I use a Salifert test kit.

Don't get me wrong, i'm not knocking the product, just wanted to let you know my experience with it.

I ran it in a phosban reactor with a small rio pump driving it (dialed down with the valve on the reactor). There was a very slow flow coming out of the reactor. It may have been too much flow or not enough, I don't know. The amount of media I used was less than what is recommended for my size system, so don't know if that played a role, but I guess either way, I would of expected the effluent to measure less than the tank.

Can you explain this 'carbon source' thing to me? What would make me need to add something like that? What would that carbon source be?

 

[rvitko]

The bacteria need carbon to live, you notice most denitrators have a food source and people write about using Vodka in their tanks, the idea is to add carbon. I may be wrong here but if I recall the bacteria are anaerobes and ATP synthesis basically requires an electron transfer to occur, I presume these anaerobes take the Oxygen off the Nitrogen in Nitrate and transfer the bond to Carbon- I may be way off here. Essentially they take in 2* -NO3 and 3*C and make 3*CO2 and N2 and in the process produce energy from the free electrons. That would be my greatly simplified laymans impression. In many tanks their is enough detritus to yeild carbon, in an established filter bed the decay of dead bacteria could produce the carbon. Short of that you need to add Vinegar, Citric Acid or Ethanol to supplement the Carbon. I think the process occurs so slowly that you really couldn't measure a difference in the effluent. Imagine you put in 50 ppm and 49.75 ppm comes out, after a few days of thousands of passes this would add up but measuring effluent won't likely give a usable result. Please bare in mind I have a fairly good understanding of chemistry but it has been a very long time since I took a cellular biology class.

 

[rvitko]

BTW, I am not advocating adding Ethanol or Citric Acid or Vinegar, I would talk to someone who is far more knowledgeable like Habib or Randy Holmes Farley or Dr Shimek or Eric Borneman.