coral chip useful?

[jun]

why so many says coral chip is a nitrate factory when placed in the sump... if pre filtered well wif wools ..etc...it stil works well in cultivating bacteria rite?

[Alvin Tan]

why so many says coral chip is a nitrate factory when placed in the sump... if pre filtered well wif wools ..etc...it stil works well in cultivating bacteria rite?

coral chips will discharge unwanted particles.....and if ur prefilter is covered properly(even wif 3 layers)......only 90% of the waste will be trapped....the others will get clogged between the coral chips..

[jun]

then coral chip can be used for wat?

[madmac]

They are use for essentially two things:

• Creating a zone for aerobic bacteria to colonise, to reduce your toxic NH4 and NO2 to a less NO3(nitrates)

• They act as a mechanical filter, cleaning your water from particulate matter.

Those should be treated like all mechanical filter materials for best results–They require regular periodic cleaning.

The word "nitrate factory" is often a misnomer applied unfairly to coral chips. Where the real issue is actually the husbandry of the reefkeeper.

A value of 100 PPM NO3 tells that your tank is very dirty and nothing else. The concept is better understood as a debt. If you think of your NO3 as a tank debt, then asking everyone, "Hey, I owe $100. How can I reduce this $100?" If you can understand the question, you'll be closer to a finding the right solution to NO3 problems.

[asg]

They are use for essentially two things:

• Creating a zone for aerobic bacteria to colonise, to reduce your toxic NH4 and NO2 to a less NO3(nitrates)

• They act as a mechanical filter, cleaning your water from particulate matter.

Those should be treated like all mechanical filter materials for best results–They require regular periodic cleaning.

The word "nitrate factory" is often a misnomer applied unfairly to coral chips. Where the real issue is actually the husbandry of the reefkeeper.

A value of 100 PPM NO3 tells that your tank is very dirty and nothing else. The concept is better understood as a debt. If you think of your NO3 as a tank debt, then asking everyone, "Hey, I owe $100. How can I reduce this $100?" If you can understand the question, you'll be closer to a finding the right solution to NO3 problems.

true, agree with you.

a tank can only produce the max NO3 that it can, given its current LS. coral chip or not ,it wont increase NO3 to over it max.

the question to be answer is: how do we reduce the NO3???

[madmac]

Oh. Actually NO3 can go well above 100ppm... not sure if your LS would be alive then.

What I meant to say was, your NO3 levels is a snap image of the state of your tank. The debt value is the result of two varibles, your spending(imports) and your income(exports). So you may have negative value of 100 resulting from one of two sets, either giving you the same value. Knowing which sets gives will help you eliminate and act on the right one.

Say you spend(import) 250 per day, but only earn 150, the test kit will show deficit 100.

The same 100 can also result from imports of 110 and exports of 10.

Now both show the same result, but the first set tells you to either work(reduce) on your imports(feeding), and/or ur exports(skimming, water change, algae turf scrubber)... while the 2nd tells you to either improve your earning(exports)–esp if cannot reduce your imports

There should be no such thing as a nitrate factory, how does a factory produce something, without inputs?

[jun]

coral chips will discharge unwanted particles.....and if ur prefilter is covered properly(even wif 3 layers)......only 90% of the waste will be trapped....the others will get clogged between the coral chips..

there are quite a number of LFS oso using coral chips....