Hi Dave, out of interest, did you have a chance to test this? There are always some odd edge cases out there on forums, and I’m wondering if this is where those problems lie……

In reply to Arjan ……… You are going hypoxic with the formation of TINY amounts of H2S. I’m at a complete loss to explain hypoxic conditions with a new aquarium. It just shouldn’t be occurring. Add a bunch of aeration and see what happens.

If I may ask: I just started up a new tank of 600 liters. I’m an experienced aquarist but now I have this thing in the sand of the tank wich has yet no fish in it: the sand is starting to smell. Rotten egglike esp. under lager rocks. The rocks themselves turn black were they are under the sand and the sand itself turns ashgrey.
The sand was washed thouroughly before putting it in. I als notice some white webbing of probably Thiothrix-bacteria. I’m thinking of H2S and wundering if A) this is bad news and B) it’s just a phase wich the new tank has to o through. Thanks in advance!

So, have you ever considered packaging up the info into an e-book, even if just a single pdf? I am sure nerds like me would buy it.

In reply to Brad I analyzed that research and found it to be a classic case of assimilatory denitrification followed by some very questionable analysis, I reviewed it in this article. This article also includes an extensive analysis as to why reduction of nitrate to nitrogen gas is impossible in the aquarium.
http://tankstartguide.com/index.php/7-5-denitrifying-media/

More to your question there is not good way to stop the marketers. As long as there are desperate grad students who need a sponsor there will be marketers around to take advantage of them.

What is your view on the below in regards to Siporax?

https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/066QdJg7PNNjgmryG5TKCXnOw#siporax_Uni_Sydney_denitrification

I can’t see any evidence from your testing that this is a great filter media. But when a company, people, or user links to this, how do you even begin to argue when you are a layman?!

Brad

In reply to Sammy ….. Conditioner can be made by dissolving 32 grams of sodium thiosulfate in one cup of water (tap water is fine). You don’t want to mix up too much as the solution does go bad with time (like two years time). Add one teaspoon of the solution per 50 gallons of the water to be treated. Since there are 100 drops in a teaspoon, this is a rate of two drops per gallon. A five X dosage is ten drops per gallon or five teaspoons per fifty gallons.

In reply to Steven …. I recommend buying solid sodium thiosulfate and making your own conditioner.