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Re: Materials for filter fittings - a chemistry question
It is unlikely, in my opinion, that the dead end holes or pits that you can see on the surface of larva rock house anaerobic bacteria. The holes would have free access to the oxygenated water and would favor aerobic bacteria. However, Bill may still be right. Larva rock is porous but you would need special tools to see the minute cavities and passages in it that make it so. It is possible that anaerobic bacteria can make their way into the depths of the larvae rock where oxygen concentrations are low. The aerobic bacteria are said to be responsible for conversion of ammonia and nitrites to nitrates. The anaerobic bacteria can convert nitrate back to nitrogen, which escapes as a gas. In theory this would prevent the slow accumulation of nitrates, but it is difficult to achieve such a balanced system in the aquarium. Besides, other organic substances accumulate in the water and water changes continue to be necessary, no matter how much we wish it were not so.
Barry
At 08:28 AM 3/8/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>Actually, the dead-end holes in the lava rock aid in the biological filtration. The last I heard was that there are two types of nitrifying bacteria at work. One that is aerobic and one that is anerobic. The dead end holes provide habitat for the later. But this area of subject mater has changed rapidly in the past few years, so even this may be in error already.
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>The Marineland web site is an excellent source of information on filtration science and technology. I haven't been back to it in a while so I should spend some time to revisit the site and see what Dr. Tim Hovanic has added or changed to our knowledge on the ntrifying cycle. The URL is:
>
>http://marineland.com/drtims_articles.html
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>Bill Vannerson
>McHenry, IL
>http://vannerson.home.att.net/
>
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___________________________________________________
Barry J. Cooper, Prof., Dept. Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University
Current address: 27505 Riggs Hill Rd.
Sweet Home, OR 97386 (bjc3 at cornell_edu)
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