Can somebody help me out on nitrate removal? How do you "barrel people" address it? Through frequent water changes? Anybody ever tried to incorporate a nitrate reductor with anaerobic bacteria? Another thing I'd like to use these tanks for is to propagate a few pond plants. Can the plants take out enough of the nitrate to see even a noticeable reduction in its level?
I'll share my thoughts about nitrates:
They're mostly benign for most species of fish unless they get really really high.
Three ways to reduce them, however.
1. Water changes. (as you mentioned)
2. Anerobic heterotrophic bacteria (as you mentioned)
3. Plants in the system to consume the nitrates
I prefer number 1 as the water changes have other advantages too, such as solids and nutrient removal.
Number 2 can be difficult to achieve small scale and can be tricky.
Number 3 is a great way to remove nitrates and at the same time produce an edible plant. It's the concept behind aquaponics.
That said, it doesn't have to be an edible plant for human consumption. I know of folks using duck weed in a separate flow through tank to reduce nitrates. Duckweed also consumes ammonia. They harvest it, dry it, and feed it to their tilapa. Don't understand it but it's supposed to have more nutrients in it when it dries.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 01/09/1609:34 AM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
