freshwater filter to marine filter

[carloskoi]

what do you think of this? has anyone else had this experience?

case #1- the crushed coral was kept wet/damp in a sealed plastic container. It sat for years. Upon using this media in a new marine system, with no bottled bacteria or seeding of any kind, the system when through a normal 21 day cycle ( text book really) at 79 F.
case #2 - two large filters from a FRESHwater aquarium were shifted to a larger, virgin SALTwater system. There was NO ammonia cycle. Instead the fish were introduced and no ammonia or nitrite readings could be detected at all for the 40 days it was monitored daily. 5 months later, the fish are living happily and no ammonia or nitrite was ever present. No saltwater fish as delicate as they are, were lost during these past five months.

[tims]

hmmmmmm.
case 1 .. even if bagged and wet you have only a a certain amount of time, before the live things will die no matter what. my guess woudl be most were dead and any living were glad to get out.
case 2
what size tank?. also there is a differance in the two fresh adn salt nitrospira or nitrobacter bacteria not a lot if i recal the paper on them. i will have to try and find it for ya.
plaes give a lot more detail on this set up. what were the reading durning this time, what size tank, what size were the fish, was it new saltwater or from an running tank? Live rock? cured or uncured?

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by tims

case 1:
...my guess woudl be most were dead and any living were glad to get out.

Originally Posted by tims

case 2:
what size tank?. also there is a differance in the two fresh adn salt nitrospira or nitrobacter bacteria not a lot if i recal the paper on them.

The opriginal reference is Hovanec, T. A. and E. F. DeLong. 1996. Comparative analysis of nitrifying bacteria associated with freshwater and marine aquaria. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 62:2888-2896. See some more of Tim Hovanec's work (Timothy A. Hovanec):


Nitrospira spp., Nitrobacter spp. and related nitrogenous waste reducers

Aquarium microbiology

confirmatioin study on nitrifyer speciation

additiional materials on ammonia oxidation

Biogeological studies and FW

Originally Posted by tims

...please give a lot more detail on this set up. what were the reading durning this time, what size tank, what size were the fish, was it new saltwater or from an running tank? Live rock? cured or uncured?

We will need more info to truly evaluate this, but keep in mind that the bacterial species that perform these functions in FW vs. SW may not be ll that different, but may require a startup time in order to switch their metabolic machinery from dealing with osmoregulatory issues. Depending on the particular strain, different clades may be responsible for the entire function when dealing with systems at their peak efficiency. this is not to say that FW species may not be able to deal with this function in SW, but that the best efficiency may occur in bacteria that have dealt with natural selection through MANY generations to occupy a particular niche.


Caucasians from North America are the same species as folks native to the Indo-Pacific Islands, but this is not to say that both have equal ability to deal with solar radiation near the equator...

[carloskoi]

i don't know more than what i posted. this was posted on the NI board for Koi by JR, James Reilly, one of the most respected and knowedgeable guys around. old time koi keeper and reef tank owner.

i think he was saying in case #1 that everything was dead and a normal 21 day cycle was observed. nothing special.

case #2 was the interesting one. after reading that i did the same thing with a small cycled sponge filter that had been in a fresh water tank. i put in in my 60 gallon tank with no LR, LS, freshly made water and 6 fish, fed 2x's per day. no ammonia or nitrites, nitrate did accumulate from the beginning. hmmm...

it goes against everything i thought i knew.

has ayone else done this experiment?

Carl