You did not mention air flow or was there no air flow to begin with. All true MBBRs have a forced air system that keeps the media bed "moving" preventing the clumping of the filter media. Since you have not mentioned air flow I have to assume that there was none ergo design flaw in the filter. Pressurized bead filter have air blowers as part of the system for just this reason.
Airflow (either by diffuser or venturi) driving the water circulation is implied when talking about MBBRs... I thought you would have known this...
...I never stated the mechanism that created the water circulation in the MBBR...
...YOU
assumed I was talking about a water pump.
...correct, if the water circulation is proper, there should not be any clumping and improper mixing... that is why increased water circulation fixed that particular problem!
All the increased water circulation did was break up the clumping that should have been done by air. It did not directly have any effect on reducing the Nitrite level.
Water circulation was driving the mixing in the MBBR...
Improper mixing allowed the clumping to form and the rest of the biofilm to not be properly cleaned off (thus conversion efficiency dropped like a rock and disrupted denitrification increased)... also, the mixing action helps to clean the media by the media bumping into each other... This interfered with the bacteria conversion rates as well as allowed a disrupted denitrification process to occur... Thus... the Nitrites increased...
Increase mixing... allowed by water circulation.... broke up the clumps and cleaned off the media... Nitrites fell down...
An anecdotal coincidence I guess...
Many small ponds (with fish) have no pump or supplemental biofiltration, yet they function well and do not have Nitrite issues.
...and I believe ya... and I have actually read of a few on this forum and elsewhere...
...but there is alot more to it .... as to why they do not have any pump nor any supplemental filtration... cause I doubt you are suggesting to most small pond owners that they should just stop using their water pumps and any extra filtration without knowing much more about their situation...
..cause then... either... those small ponds had many and/or mature oxygenating plants and/or the organic presence was not great at all... as well as the fish were either very small and/or not many... and the fish never reproduced like crazy and/or ya removed fish as they populated... figure not talking about mosquito nor rosey red minnow fish...
I am quite aware of the planted aquaria hobby as well as Dr. Barr and Diana Walstad... and why no water pumps nor supplemental biofiltration would ever be needed if everything else is properly controlled... I think this would applied to a small pond as well.... just as Mitch was experimenting with...
...and to requote what I wrote before...
Sure, eventually, with very low or zero water mixing, the microbes will eventually receive some of these pollutants to "clean"... I did not suggest this would not eventually happen without water mixing..
In 20+ years direct involvement with ponds of all types and sizes, I have never seen a Nitrite spike except after extreme weather events that caused loss of power.
BINGO! ... cause... loss of power means loss of water circulation (whether driven by pump or aeration)... thus... Nitrite spike!! ... this is not rocket science...
...since you mentioned "Nitrite spike" and "loss of power" in same sentence, I assume water and/or air pumps were involved...
...if equipment failure did not allow the Nitrite spike to occur... then most likely either a sudden water chemistry change and/or contaminants...
Aquaculture RAS do not combat Nitrite levels with increased circulation, but with chloride.
Yes, I am quite aware of this as well as the ratio of chloride to nitrite they utilize... Ya can find posts from about 3 years ago of me talking about using chloride to combat Nitrite, but this is not a fix.
...I never meant that increased circulation fixes ALL.... I understand why you would want to believe that of me.... I appreciate you giving me a chance to clarify this...
...which is why I wrote a few posts ago (
post#65), as requoted below...
If Nitrites every should increase in a water system... then increasing water circulation is one of the best things to do along with maybe some other things as well as addressing the problem's source...
Sorry, increasing water circulation is one potential fix whenever Nitrites spikes occur... Of course, it is not the ONLY fix...
...and I learned this from simply reading those individuals whom do this
