我頭先係RC到出左個post，太累唔想翻譯，大家有興趣就睇睇~
I've been thinking how exactly does the ZEOvit system works.
Apparently there're lots of successful case of ZEOvit systems, but the more I read about it, the more I think the zeolite's ion binding capability has nothing to do with the whole system.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but here's what I do think is going on with ZEOvit system.
a) Zeolite is introduced as an ammonia binding media, but its capacity is used up in days if not hours;
b) Once its ion binding capacity is used up, it's nothing more than a fancy named media for bacteria growth, similar to GAC / live rocks or even bio-balls. But they do make a great bacteria housing media because of their porous structure;
c) I'm not sure if it has been proven, but ZEOfood7 is most likely to be a carbon source, similar to vodka dosing. So the whole ZEOvit system is nothing more than a carbon dosing system using zeolite has the bacteria housing media;
In my own system, I didn't use vodka dosing but I used the NP bio pellets, after using a 1mm coarse sponge in the reactor, it was completely clogged after 3 days. This give me an impression that bacteria that utilize carbon source grows REALLY fast, which brings up the next item;
d) Due to the porous structure of zeolite, it makes a great media for growth of certain strains of bacteria that utilize carbon source to absorb NO3/PO4. However also due to this rapid growth it's very likely all surface of the zeolite become clogged very similar to the sponge I used in my NPBP reactor. Thus the daily pumping is designed to reduce the bacteria coating.
e) So basically the whole ZEOvit reactor is very similar to the "fluidized sand bed reactor" that was once popular back in the days when I first started keeping reef aquarium (some 12+ years ago) - the only difference is, it's housing bacteria that utilize carbon source and not housing nitrifying bacteria.
And due to the rapid growth of the bacteria strain that utilize carbon source, it's possible that eventually all the porous structure of zeolite become clogged to a point it's no longer capable of housing more bacteria, thus they need to be replaced.
Which brings up another idea - if vodka dosing is used in a system where there're not a lot of live rock to house the bacteria, then the results may not be so impressive, simply because the number of bacteria available in the system is vastly inferior compared to a system with a zeolite reactor.
This is rather interesting since it may be possible to utilize the old fluidized sand bed reactor again, and use sugar grain sized coral sand as the media, along with vodka dosing, to achieve the same result as a ZEOvit system without the need to pump the zeolite every day.
And if the bacteria is capable to alter the local environment such that pH is lowered to a point it'll gradually dissolve the coral sand, all the user need to do is regularly add new coral sand to the fluidized sand bed to replace the dissolved media.
What do you think? Did we just hit another gold mine of the next generation of ULNS filtration system? :P
p.s. I'm currently using 300ml of NPBP in my system, but NPBP aren't the best bacteria housing media, simply because bacteria can only colonize the surface area and I don't think the pellets are that porous.
And unlike vodka dosing, most of the bacteria should only colonize the surface of the pellets as it's where they'll get their food.
So to test my theory, I just added some 50-100g of fine grain coral sand into my reactor, it may boost the bacteria housing capability of my NPBP reactor by a few folds, who knows ;p
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