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Re: "overfiltered"
James Purchase wrote:
> No matter how much volume (or area) your bio-filter has, you will NEVER have
> more bacteria in it than is necessary for the amount of ammonia and other
> waste products being pumped through it. Bacteria, like all living things,
> require food and without it they will not reproduce and eventually their
> numbers will stabilize at a point where each bacterium is able to get only
> sufficient food for its needs.
I guess that depends on what you mean by overfiltered. I think if you
allow the bacteria population to grow to meet its nutrient supply then you
are overfiltering the tank. I want to reserve the ammonia supply for the
plants and that means intentionally limiting the size of the nitrifying
population. One way to do that is to limit the area that the bacteria can
populate. That is, removing or reducing the size of the filter media.
Roger Miller