nitrification, denitrification, the COMPLETE cycle & perfect water

[Planted-Pete™]

I have gone in completely the opposite direction. All of my tanks are seriously under filtered and have enough plants to deal with the ammonia without all that tedious mucking about with bacteria. Chances are the bacteria have died of starvation - but on the plus side I never see nitrate and I have no fear of filter failures

That's funny, and definitely do-able. I know approx 80% of the surface area of my tank is plants NOW, I wouldn't consider it "mucking around" because it was more of a Ron Popeile "set it and forget it" kinda thing?

 

[Planted-Pete™]

I forgot to add that denitrating filters have been around for years. Sera brought out a denitrating filer in the 1980s and it took a few months to get going but worked well at removing nitrates. It was just a brown plastic filter that hung on the back of the tank and had a very slow flow of water moving through it. This allowed the filter to turn anaerobic. You added a small carbon tablet each day to feed the bacteria. These tablets were hideously overpriced. I eventually stopped using the tablets even though I was getting them at cost price, and it didn't seem to affect the anaerobic bacteria. The filter continued to keep the nitrates at 0ppm for several years while it was being used.

The tank was a marine tank with a bit of rock and some Caulerpa, but it also had lots of fish and they were fed heavily 3 times a day. I did a big water change about once a month. There was no protein skimmer on the tank.

Did a bunch more research last night, turns out you could have fed that filter vodka, methanol, grenadine, sugar water.....didn't need to buy those expensive tablets....any simple source of carbon.
In the substrate decaying organic matter is the carbon source

Also you're right, they are still sold as "denitrator reactors", there's one called the "aquaripure" ......watched a video by the manufacturer, now THAT looks like "mucking around"