bang guy
Moderator
Originally Posted by mande51334
i used some regular pink fiji sand? in a bag, then i added it with a product called "bio activ? live sand but it doesnt look like its doing much
THat's not going to do it. There's a huge difference between a deep sand bed and a live sand bed. Deep sand bed will not reduce nitrates and may infact become a "nitrate factory".
For a sand bed to reduce nitrate small amounts of oxygen depleted, nitrate rich water needs to be slowly puched through the lower levels of the sand. This doesn't happen on its own; it happens from the actions of small, nearly microscopic animals living in the sand bed.
If you with to continue with a deep sand bed my suggestion is to purchase a box of premium live sand from this site, or trade for sand from an established tank with live sand.
Just for understanding live sand beds:
1 - Water containing Ammonia is dragged into the sand from the actions of sand bed critters going up & down their burrows or between sand grains.
2 - Nitrifying bacteria use the oxygen in the water to convert the Ammonia to Nitrite and then the Nitrite to Nitrate resumlting in poorly oxygenated water laden with Nitrate.
3 - This water is then dragged deeper into the sand, again by the bugs & worms.
4 - Denitrifying bacteria consume the Nitrate producing Oxygen and Nitrogen gas.
5 - The oxygen is redissolved into the water and the Nitrogen gas collects to form bubbles.
6 - The further action of the sand bed critters pulls the water up and allows the Nitrogen gas bubbles to slowly work their way to the surface of the sand bed where they float up and are released into the air.
A you can see, the sand bed infauna are needed at all of the important steps. Without them you just have a lot of dead sand where Nitrifying bacteria can live only at the surface converting Ammonia to Nitrate but no further.
i used some regular pink fiji sand? in a bag, then i added it with a product called "bio activ? live sand but it doesnt look like its doing much
THat's not going to do it. There's a huge difference between a deep sand bed and a live sand bed. Deep sand bed will not reduce nitrates and may infact become a "nitrate factory".
For a sand bed to reduce nitrate small amounts of oxygen depleted, nitrate rich water needs to be slowly puched through the lower levels of the sand. This doesn't happen on its own; it happens from the actions of small, nearly microscopic animals living in the sand bed.
If you with to continue with a deep sand bed my suggestion is to purchase a box of premium live sand from this site, or trade for sand from an established tank with live sand.
Just for understanding live sand beds:
1 - Water containing Ammonia is dragged into the sand from the actions of sand bed critters going up & down their burrows or between sand grains.
2 - Nitrifying bacteria use the oxygen in the water to convert the Ammonia to Nitrite and then the Nitrite to Nitrate resumlting in poorly oxygenated water laden with Nitrate.
3 - This water is then dragged deeper into the sand, again by the bugs & worms.
4 - Denitrifying bacteria consume the Nitrate producing Oxygen and Nitrogen gas.
5 - The oxygen is redissolved into the water and the Nitrogen gas collects to form bubbles.
6 - The further action of the sand bed critters pulls the water up and allows the Nitrogen gas bubbles to slowly work their way to the surface of the sand bed where they float up and are released into the air.
A you can see, the sand bed infauna are needed at all of the important steps. Without them you just have a lot of dead sand where Nitrifying bacteria can live only at the surface converting Ammonia to Nitrate but no further.
