Craig Bingman wrote:
> It isn't that porous, and I think the denitification potential of live
> rock is usually overestimated. It is variable. It also might be
> difficult to find appropriately porous rocks for a freshwater tank that
> were not made of calcium carbonate.
>
> That does work. Which is why I suggested a deep bed of coarsish gravel
> for fishtanks. The gravel in our freshwater tank always has gas bubbles
> in it, which I presume are mainly nitrogen.
>
> One caveat that you should be aware of... when denitrification is going
> ina system, there is generally some nitrite around. That isn't a big
> deal in marine systems, since Cl- competes with NO2- for uptake.
> However, it might be a very big deal for freshwater systems.
>
> Craig
>
I'm not sure how to respond about poracity of live rock, the rock I
have is very porous but some of it was not "live" when I put it in, it
was coral ruble. Most of the texts that I have read claim live rock as
porous and I would trust them on it, but thats personal :) As to a
porous rock that is not calcium carbonate mabey lava rock, I have no
idea what it is made of, any geologists out there? Lava does not have
the characteristic white color that I think of when I look at calcium
carb. You may well have a good point about the nitrite though, I had
not really considered it. I'll have to look into it before if I ever
get around to seting up another "experiment" ;)
It's been fun
Bjorn