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I don't think I'm understanding correctly. Is the plumbing and powerhead (or drain) connected to the plenum for the sole reason of occasionally removing the goo from beneath the plenum, or is it actually circulating all of the time sort of acting as a reverse UGF?
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The idea behind the powerhead was to be able to remove sludge from underneath the plenum.
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Is this system intended to function also as a denitrifier? If so then why minimize the anaerobic zone?
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yes it is intended to work as a denitrifier in addition to other things. What do you mean by minimizing the anaerobic zone? Is the plenum itself not deep enough?
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It's anaerobic bacteria in the absence of oxygen that utilizes nitrates correct? From what I understand the active bacteria of the nitrogen cycle from old texts (nitrosomonous and nitrobacter) were not found to be present in a survey of 200 reef tanks across the U.S. The bacteria that was found present is Nitrospyra. Also its conversion from using oxygen to nitrates is not a sudden event, and that returning them to an aerobic environment quickly causes them to implode. Because of this I do believe a cycle and restart would occur durring cleaning or draining the plenum area.
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To be completely honest here, I have no idea if this is the case or not. I don't have access to the microbiology texts that you guys are using. Where did you find this stuff? I would love to do some more research on it myself....Another question: Hows does changing the environment from anaerobic to aerobic cause the bacteria to crenate? We're not talking about osmotic shifts in salinity here, just the addition of O2 to the environment. I'm not asking to be rude...just genuinely curious.
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Just thinking aloud. I think I'm going to regret this.
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What??? Not at all! We all welcome your input RC...I don't know any more about this than you do, and I suspect you know alot more actually. I know several people (myself included) were less than happy a few months ago and sounded off about it. That was then, this is now. I don't think thats what you're talking about in this case, but if you are...no worries man. I am always glad when people chime in and ask questions or want clarification. If you can't explain something to another person and have them understand it, then you don't have a firm grasp on what you're doing.
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just for the record, I dont agree with draining/flushing the plenum.
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Doug, how would you deal w/ the detritus build up under the plenum then? Do you feel that any detritus that collects under there is alright or not generally harmful to the system? Just wanting clarification...
Nick