Myth Busted

[ShinySideUp]

I was reading somewhere on here that someone, somewhere, had heard from someone who knew someone, etc. etc.......that if you use an airpump and airstone you can 'gas off' nitrates. Well, not willing to wait for weeks to see if my nitrates would fall using this method I decided to take 1 litre of tank water, take before and after readings and bubble it for 24 hours. This I did last night. The nitrates before I started the experiment were at about 60 ppm, after the experiment the nitrates were just about the same. If there had been any reduction in the level of nitrate then it was indiscernible and that was with just 1 litre of water, let alone a 200 litre tank full of the stuff.

I can categorically state that running bubbles through nitrate contaminated water does absolutely nothing towards removing nitrate.

Oh well, back to the water changes.

 

[MBOU]

I would assume that this is the quivalent of the filtration systems we use? Using a static and moving bed of biomedia. Aerobic and Anaerobic bacteria does work to reduce nitrites and nitrates, that is a given...

So i assume people saying you can 'gas off' nitrates would mean via this process?

http/www.cascadekoi.com/Koi/EvolutionAquaKaldnesK1.aspx

I cant find any info on the filters we actually use LOL though they work on a similar process. Water flows through a 5ft 'tank' with dividers, the first half is a moving bed and bubbles like mad and the second bed is static and not moving. So both house different types of bacteria? Or complete a different process as well as trapping dirt.

 

[ShinySideUp]

I would assume that this is the quivalent of the filtration systems we use? Using a static and moving bed of biomedia. Aerobic and Anaerobic bacteria does work to reduce nitrites and nitrates, that is a given...

So i assume people saying you can 'gas off' nitrates would mean via this process?

http/www.cascadekoi.com/Koi/EvolutionAquaKaldnesK1.aspx

I cant find any info on the filters we actually use LOL though they work on a similar process. Water flows through a 5ft 'tank' with dividers, the first half is a moving bed and bubbles like mad and the second bed is static and not moving. So both house different types of bacteria? Or complete a different process as well as trapping dirt.

No, the post I read said that the person was told that simply bubbling air through the water would remove the nitrates; just bubbles going straight to the surface, no filter, nothing. I thought it most unlikely, and I was right.

 

[Bugdozer]

Given that the major constituents of air are nitrogen and oxygen, and nitrate is made of... er... nitrogen and oxygen, there's nothing much in the air for it to react with to turn into anything else!

 

[MBOU]

Oh... weird... i dont know how they hoped that would work then!! But then again, now that I think about it, it is a question i am asked daily and i just say 'no, this most definately isnt true' as an automati answer that i barely register the question any more! People are always asknig if you can filter a tank using an airpump.

 

[ZoddyZod]

I'm amazed you even bothered to try the experiment.....if it was true we'd ALL be using a air pump already.

 

[DrRob]

I'd always thought that gassing off nitrates referred to the process of oxidising ammonia into N2 gas and H2O. Not something simply achievable in an aquarium. I've always been tempted to mess around with the anaerobic tower systems though, but have never had the excuse given that I have to supplement nitrate in my tanks to keep the plants going.

Maybe when I go marine.......eventually.

 

[ShinySideUp]

I'm amazed you even bothered to try the experiment.....if it was true we'd ALL be using a air pump already.

I try to find out for myself the facts behind the myths so that I can confidently argue against them as nothing is worse than someone who poo-poos something without knowing a thing about it.

It may have been that the myth was true in part but not effective enough to deal with nitrate in large quantities of water and so not generally adopted; I now know this is not the case at any level..