Hi all,
You say microwave them how would that gel and you mean microwave the actually ceramics pieces?
Yes, <"
microwave the wet ceramic media">, it is meant to remove the organic media from the pore spaces.
I've never used a micro-wave, <"
but we used to use an autoclave"> (basically a pressure cooker) to clean up really dirty media from the trickle filters when we worked on landfill leachate.
For what it's worth, the different types of sintered glass media that I'm aware of have the following surface areas:-
Eheim Substrat Pro - 450m2 per litre
Sera Siporax - 270m2 per litre
Superfish Crystal Max - 275m2 per litre
Fluval Biomax - 600+m2 per litre (from memory?)
If some-one else is buying I'll have <"
Substrat Pro">, but discussion of pore space in filter media is all
smoke and mirrors really.
I don't think that having nitrification and denitrification in the <"
same canister filter is ever a good idea">, so pore space becomes largely irrelevant.
If you have a substrate and plants you are going to have nitrate depletion, via incorporation into plant tissue and some denitrification in the substrate.
The other issue is the one that none of the sellers ever talk about is oxygen. The more oxygen you have the less filter media you need, biological filtration is very rarely limited by media volume, it is almost always limited by oxygen availability.
Pollution is quantified by BOD ~ Biochemical Oxygen Demand.
If you don't have enough oxygen ammonia levels will inevitably rise, we can argue about the level that nitrate becomes toxic and whether it is hundreds or thousands of ppm, but no-one is going to argue about ammonia toxicity.
You can tell people plants and oxygen are the key, but then you can't sell them, a huge filter stuffed full with your (expensive) media which
is "definitely better because it has more pore space".
If you think about the <"
Thames oxygen bubbler barges"> or waste water treatment with a trickle filter, or <"
rotating contactors">, it is apparent that oxygen is the prime metric.
Consequently, in 1989 a purpose built vessel,the 'Thames Bubbler' came into operation. It injects up to 30 tonnes of oxygen per day directly into the River at the appropriate time and place. It is 50.5 metres long and 10 metres wide. It cost £3.5 million to build and costs around a £0.25 million a year to operate. A new oxygenation vessel, the 'Thames Vitality' with the same capacity as the 'Thames Bubbler' was launched in 1997. Both these vessels are owned and operated by Thames Water Utilities as part of an operating agreement with the Environment Agency and can be deployed within a few hours notice if it appears likely that oxygen levels will fall to critical levels. The vessels were deployed on 24 days in 2000, 30 days in 2001, 48 days in 2002, 25 days in 2003 and 29 days in 2004.
cheers Darrel
