Hi all here, Hope this belongs to advanced topics. Was reading ATS forum recntly and found thread : http://algaescrubber.net/forums/sho...Algae-Scrubber-Need-Feedback-(video-included) My question is : how the hell one can have tank with 100+ nitrates and free of nuisance algae at the same time ? Never had nitrates above 10 , so it seems mysterious to me.
Where does he say anything about nitrates being 100+? I have one tank that a customer wanted me to basically stop maintaining (restaurant tank, slow business, what are you going to do). Nitrates skyrocketed. They were well over 300. Then I changed the tank lights (4x 96W PC) and 2 weeks later the tank was an algae forest. I have one other tank (that I recently tore down and re-did) and that tank had nitrates that I estimated to be well over 400 and it had no GHA. But that was a 30" tall 210 with 4x 60W PC on it - hardly enough light for anything to grow. All that every grew, algae wise, was a layer of red slime on the rocks (that didn't quite seem like cyano, but might have been...)
I must be losing it, I have watched this video 4 times and I see no mention of nitrate levels, either in text or audio
I still chuckle when I read ace25s "Needs more light" retort, and SMs "No Roots " theory, http://www.ciesm.org/online/archives/abstracts/pdf/39/PG_0408.pdf This hydrogen peroxide gets everywhere, don't it
So wait a second. If you have high nitrates, this actually causes H2O2 to get produced by what? So does this mean that the algae scrubber is not a viable method to reduce very high nitrates? Meaning that one would have to "reset" their system via a large PWC in order for the scrubber to then become effective it keeping things under control?
How did that adventure ended ? Did it start to grow any algae on any stage rocks and screen ? What about phos leaching
Its a bit confusing and ive been looking at this subject for weeks, and im no scientist but this is the general conclusion i have reached. All photosynthetic organisms produce H2O2. Some of this may effect other photosynthetic organisms (less H2O2 tolerant algae will die). Algaes have mechanisms to render them harmless in normal circumstances, but if they are deficient of an amino acid (for example) and can't sequester it from the water (organic uptake), the mechanism may fail and the algae will not survive. Or if too much light reacts with the photosynthetic part of the algae, too much H2O2 is produced and the mechanism for removal fails. Similar thing with too much nitrate producing excessive H2O2 in normal light.
Trying to follow this. These seem like 3 distinct scenarios. It seems this is related to the "limitation" argument - if one component necessary for growth is limited, then growth is limited. Now this throws another possibility into the equation that implies that due to this limitation, the species is left vulnerable to excess levels of H2O2 that it would otherwise be able to protect itself against. This implies that one species or area (scrubber) is under high photosynthetic production (and also taking up the nutrients) and the other is not (so it becomes more limited over time). Eventually the algae in the less preferred location dies, leaving the scrubber algae to stand alone. Now this is a different scenario. This is where you provide too much light to the scrubber. This results in an overproduction of H2O2, which would then would cause what, self-inhibition of growth? When you state "removal fails" are you referring to removal of nutrients (NPK) from the water? This one I am a bit confused on. How does the nitrate produce H2O2? I don't think it is in that article, so that's coming from somewhere else. The chlorophyll degradation at high nitrate levels is interesting though, it explains the restaurant tank in particular. So is it your thought that oxidative stress brought on my high nitrates might be causing algae to over-produce H2O2 under normal light, which is then self-inhibiting scrubber growth? I know that it is possible to have too much light on your scrubber, that has been clear for a while, but what this implies is that there are many circumstances under which this can happen - including some that fall into a "normal" range of operation of a given system.
