Hello, today I want talk about the great benefits of the bacterial reactors in salt water aquariums. But before that, I will have say a few words about the nitrogen cycle, which is in the foundation of the reef aquariums. The nitrogen cycle is the processes of developing sufficient number of nitrifying bacteria that can process the fish waste, the ammonia and nitrite before they harm our fish and corals. A certain strain of nitrifying bacteria process the highly toxic ammonia to less toxic nitrite and then another strain of bacteria process the nitrite to nitrate. Although the nitrates are not toxic to our tank inhabitants, they should also be kept at low levels.

As you already see the nitrogen cycle and in particular - the nitrifying bacteria, are crucial for the well being of aquarium - without them our tanks would not last for more than a day. The bacteria themselves are natural inhabitants of the oceans and by the introduction of live rock or live sand to your home aquarium you will also introduce the good bacteria. And if you want to cycle your aquarium faster, concentrated nitrifying bacteria solutions are also available on the market.
It is important to mention that the nitrifying bacteria do not live freely in the water column but rather settle down onto different surfaces and mostly within the porous rock structures. Therefore, it is important to have enough high-porous rocks in your display or sump because the more porous the rock is, the more surface area that the nitrifying bacteria can colonize on.

  Nitrifying bacteria are generally two types - aerobic and anaerobic. The first colonies the outer parts of the live rocks, sand and other surfaces in the aquarium - where there is a large movement of water and oxygen, respectively. Anaerobic bacteria, on other hand, colonize the inner parts of the live rocks where there is very little water movement and an oxygen-poor environment.

  Unfortunately, we can not always have a lot of live rock. There are also many cases where we want the system to have a more minimalist look with more free space for the fish to swim or corals to grow. But less live rock means less nitrifying bacteria. So in this scenario we usually have to limit the number of fish in the aquarium, to feed less and have less waste so that the available bacteria can effectively process it. But even if we have a sufficient volume of live rock, sooner or later we reach the limit of the system where it can no longer effectively process nitrates. This is because the type of nitrifying bacteria that process the nitrates live in the anaerobic environment deep in the stone and unfortunately this anaerobic environment is just a small a percentage of the total rock volume. At the same in cases where there are nitrate levels, we should take measures otherwise our reef tank will be soon covered with unwanted algae. The high levels of nitrates are also associated with the so-called "browning" of the SPS corals.

  In the case of high nitrates levels, we can proceed by the maxima of Pooh Winnie the "the more - the more" 😁, namely, the more nitrifying bacteria there is, the better the absorption of nitrates. But how do we increase the number of bacteria - we provide enough food that they "like", which leads to the rapid development of nitrifying bacteria and hence the drop in nitrate levels. And bacteria love carbon. So the most common approach taken by saltwater aquarists is to start by adding to the tank carbon sources in one form or another - ethyl alcohol (vodka), various sugars, acetic acid, Nopox, bio pellets. Thus, in most cases, nitrate levels are declining. Sounds an easy and seamless solution to the problem, right? In fact, it is not quite the case. Yes indeed, the addition of carbon leads to a rapid multiplication of nitrifying bacteria but unfortunately in the aquarium there are also other bacteria that are not desired by the aquarist and that are also developing violently after the carbon dosing. Generally, these are cyanobacteria - the red and brown-green batts that cover everything and that that often kill corals. The problem is that it is difficult to determine how much carbon is needed to feed only the nitrifying bacteria. This often leaves free carbon in the water, which fuels the cyanobacteria.

  Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem, and it is called a bacterial reactor. It is a specially designed reactor with a design that provides the right conditions for effective culturing of nitrifying bacteria without dosing carbon to the aquarium itself and therefore without feeding the harmful bacteria.

  The reactor uses large-sized ceramics with an area of ​​270 square meters per liter of media. The reactor can utilize up to 6 liters of ceramic rings, the total area of ​​which is over 1600 square meters. At startup, the reactor is dosed with a concentrate of specially selected bacterial cultures that settle within a few hours. Carbon dosing takes place directly in the reactor, thus feeding only the useful nitrifying bacteria present therein. The aquarium water gradually flows through the bacterial reactor, and the nitrates found in the aquarium are rapidly absorbed. This is one of the most effective methods for controlling nitrate in saltwater aquariums and tests in our own saltwater system show that nitrate levels dropped from 50 to 5 ppm within 14-21 days of reactor start-up and using the reactor these optimal nitrate levels for coral growth remain long term. As a summary of the benefits of а bacterial reactor:

• It is a highly effective method of denitrification and permanent reduction of nitrate in the system
• Allows less live rock to be used
• Allows considerably less water changes
• Keeps the system stable even for overstocked aquariums
• Carbon sources are dosed in the reactor itself, thus avoiding carbon dosing in the display which can cause cyano outbreak
• Extremely easy to maintain, where the maintenance is limited to carbon dosing, which can also be automated
• Allows fine tuning depending on the level of nitrate in the system
• Avoids lowering the PH and the oxygen levels in the system which often happens if you dose carbon directly to the tank and not in a reactor
• Some of the nitrifying bacteria from the reactor enters the display and which provide a great coral food

I hope the article was interesting enough and that we have been able to show the benefits of the use of bacterial reactors in salt water aquariums.

If you wish to acquire such reactor, you can open our Hobblife's profile page and view our marketplace ads tab for our ongoing listings on the Hobblife marketplace. We have posted an ad for a bacterial reactor that is suitable for systems from 100 to 1200 liters and which we personally use in our saltwater tanks.

Have a great day everyone!