# Other Aquarium Forums > Fish Care, Nutrition and Water Management >  Biohome vs Nitrate

## dnsfpl

300g of Biohome in 1.2l of 80ppm NO3 water
lets see how long it takes for the Biohome to _clean_ the water

cheers

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## Shadow

First of all, Nitrosomonas bacteria break down ammonia into nitrites (NO2).
Secondly, Nitrobacter bacteria break down nitrites into nitrates (NO3). 
Lastly, Anaerobic bacteria break up NO3 to obtain oxygen and release Nitrogen gas.

Thus for your experiment you should use Ammonia instead of NO3. NO3 should not go anywhere because that is the final product.

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## dnsfpl

http://www.reinbiotech.com/biohome/biohome.jsp
It is a sintered glass filtration media that houses billions of beneficial bacteria to get rid of ammonia, nitrite and *nitrate*...

based on my experience, biohome can bring down NO3
2x1x1 feet tank using OHF with 2kg of biohome
NO3 reading after cycling was around 20ppm
0ppm after 3 months, without any water change
bioload app 40 shrimps

doing this just to confirm my findings

cheers

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## Shadow

is that so? I need to remove it from my filter then

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## alien54d

> http://www.reinbiotech.com/biohome/biohome.jsp
> It is a sintered glass filtration media that houses billions of beneficial bacteria to get rid of ammonia, nitrite and *nitrate*...
> 
> based on my experience, biohome can bring down NO3
> 2x1x1 feet tank using OHF with 2kg of biohome
> NO3 reading after cycling was around 20ppm
> 0ppm after 3 months, without any water change
> bioload app 40 shrimps
> 
> ...


can also test for NO2 and NH3?
to make sure that the anaerobic bacteria is actually working in oxygenated environment (ie with air pump).

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## Shadow

normally when you cycle tank, the Amonia, nitrites and nitrates relationship is like the picture below. You should be able to plot similar graph.

(Picture taken from http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html)

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## Shadow

> based on my experience, biohome can bring down NO3
> 2x1x1 feet tank using OHF with 2kg of biohome
> NO3 reading after cycling was around 20ppm
> 0ppm after 3 months, without any water change
> bioload app 40 shrimps


Is there a plant in this tank? and/or is there carbon media in your filter?

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## dnsfpl

i have moss in my shrimp tank, no carbon

that is why i am doing this experiment to confirm

cheers

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## Shaihulud

If the biohome is fresh from the packaging, there will be no beneficial bacteria and therefore false results. Using an established biohome from a tank would propably work.

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## Fuzzy

> If the biohome is fresh from the packaging, there will be no beneficial bacteria and therefore false results. Using an established biohome from a tank would propably work.


Yeah I was about to bring this up, was the biohome previously from an established filter? or fresh out of the box?

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## KeIgO86

interesting experiment. I look forward to seeing the results as I've always been skeptical about biohome's claim about being so dense yet porous that it can house a significant amount of anaerobic bacteria that it will place a considerable dent in the nitrate levels of an aquarium.

Since you are at it, to make the experiment more interesting, I suggest including a "control" of "brand X" ceramic rings with established bacteria colony as well in another beaker. We might just find out ceramic rings can do the same too (though i doubt so).

Keep us posted with the result!

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## dnsfpl

no change in NO3 after a week
transfer a couple of biohome from my tank to seed
stay tune for next week test result

cheers

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## Navanod

The suggestion of a control is very valid. All experiment should have a negative control of some sort. Its certainly more work though...so lets see whether it worth doing a control at all based on the initial results.

Perhaps 20-40ppm may be a good comparison as well. 80pm may be approaching toxicity and affect the bacteria growth?

IMHO, even the aerobic bacteria needs more than a mere week to establish themselves. I would suspect that the anaerobic may take even longer...even with seeding.

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## dnsfpl

not sure what negative control you are referring to but i agree 40ppm is better due to the more obvious change in test result, if any

cheers

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## Navanod

> not sure what negative control you are referring to but i agree 40ppm is better due to the more obvious change in test result, if any
> 
> cheers


Negative control - Perhaps using just normal CR instead of Biohome in a separate test?
But that can always be performed after the Biohome results are out. Just to be sure that the nitrates are indeed broken down by the biohome.

Not being picky, just that I work in a research lab...its an occupational thing  :Roll Eyes: 

Thanks for great effort  :Well done:

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## dnsfpl

i will try to carry out further experiment using other media provided biohome can really reduce nitrates effectively

cheers

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## StanChung

Won't the nitrates be in fact absorbed by the moss?
I think Biohomme is a product made for fish tanks not planted tanks.
We like our nitrate in planted tanks.

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## Shadow

He is just trying to confirm it, means if the nitrate does not drop then moss is taking it and Biohome advertisement on their web site is wrong. If nitrate is drop then I need to take out my Biohome from the filter ... :LOL:

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## StanChung

Use Bio Rio lah.  :Grin:

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## Shadow

Honestly if your bioload is moderate and all your plant grow healthily, do you still need the filter media? by right the plant will take Ammonia before start taking nitrite and nitrate

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## StanChung

Of course you do, for the times when the plants are not 100%.
When you first planted, after trimming or rescape.
The filter is not just for nitrogen cycle IMO. It decomposes a lot of things we hobbyists don't understand or are able to analyse.

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## dnsfpl

another week has pass, not sure if my eyes is playing trick
i notice a slight drop in NO3 reading, will have to wait another week before confirming

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## dnsfpl

any difference?



experiment failed but what when wrong?
biohome cannot reduce NO3?
anaerobic bacteria requires longer time to develop?
any clue?

cheers

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## eeeeemo

nitrate is removed by anaerobic bacteria as you have already known.
but these bacteria exists in deep soil.. more than 4cm deep.

it is quite impossible to achieve such conditions in a tub IMO.
the further bubbling of the tub creates an even more aerobic condition...

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## Shadow

Experiment isn't fail, it just the result is not as you expected.

Nitrate is remove either by anaerobic bacteria or plants. So now you can sue Biohome because of misleadings advertisement ... :LOL:

anaerobic mean environment where no oxygen, so the bacteria break up NO3 to obtain oxygen and release Nitrogen gas.

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## StanChung

Maybe you didn't use enough Biohomme.  :Grin:  

I think Powersand is much better at breaking down NO3 to N2.
My tank soil is always 'farting'.  :Laughing:

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## Navanod

besides providing an anaerobic environment, there must be enough flow through the "aerobic" areas of the biohome for the nitrate to be able to reach the anaerobic zones (how nitrate can reach those zones without any oxygen following it is beyond me though)
My guess is that canisters and power heads may provide that kind of pressure and flowrates but an airpump may lack that kind of force

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## Shadow

actually I doubth that it will be any anaerobic bacteria colonize biohome in the first place. Biohome is porous material where water can go through easily. How is it possible that an area which lack of oxygen being form in the porous material where oxygen rich water can pass through?  :Confused:

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## bossteck

> Experiment isn't fail, it just the result is not as you expected.


That's the spirit of a true researcher, Robert!  :Well done:

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## Fuzzy

> actually I doubth that it will be any anaerobic bacteria colonize biohome in the first place. Biohome is porous material where water can go through easily. How is it possible that an area which lack of oxygen being form in the porous material where oxygen rich water can pass through?


I'll have to agree with this, they tout how porous the product is but at the same time claim that it can house denitrifying bacteria which we all know to require an anaerobic environment. 

These are mutually exclusive goals, material porous enough to carry water and the requirement of a low / no oxygen environment for denitrifying bacteria to colonize.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denitrifying_bacteria

I for one did not buy biohome / biohome plus for its purported nitrate reducing abilities, so not much of a disappointment for me, heh.

Even the much denser live rock that marine aquarists use for biological filtration in their tanks cannot sustain denitrification processes, they still rely on external denitrification reactors, vodka / sugar dosing or water changes to remove nitrates from their systems.




> besides providing an anaerobic environment, there must be enough flow through the "aerobic" areas of the biohome for the nitrate to be able to reach the anaerobic zones (how nitrate can reach those zones without any oxygen following it is beyond me though)
> My guess is that canisters and power heads may provide that kind of pressure and flowrates but an airpump may lack that kind of force


Yes this is one of the most major problems, even with a deep substrate where denitrification can occur, the nitrates still need to find some way to infiltrate the substrate in the absence of oxygen. Thus I think the only really efficient way this can be acheived is in a wet/dry style canister or a denitrifying reactor.


On a side note, I think an interesting follow up experiment would be to see how quickly Biohome converts Ammonia to Nitrates.
I think this is the main reason most of us use biohome in the first place?

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## stormhawk

> Maybe you didn't use enough Biohomme.  
> 
> I think Powersand is much better at breaking down NO3 to N2.
> My tank soil is always 'farting'.


Isn't that "farting" caused by methane gas bubbles escaping the substrate?

So much for an expensive filter media though.  :Laughing:

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## eeeeemo

its not expensive.... if you want to talk bt expensive media you should look at powerhouse.

biohome does a great job in maintaining nitrite and ammonia at 0ppm.

just not nitrate. that part of the cycle can only be completed in the soil or taken in by plants.
unless you talk about expensive equipment....  :Smug: 
like reactors, trickle filters.

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## stormhawk

> its not expensive.... if you want to talk bt expensive media you should look at powerhouse.


I see this as an optional item as filter media. Not a must buy, and definitely not for the budget conscious, or skeptics like myself and Fuzzy, that do not believe 100% in this product's ability to do what it is supposed to do. I hope you understand that. 

Oh and by the way, Biohome in itself, does not do the job of keeping nitrites and ammonia at 0 ppm. The bacteria living within it, is doing the job. Unless of course, Biohome has the same ability like zeolite, in removing ammonia and it's by-products.  :Laughing:

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## Navanod

If I'm really out to remove nitrate, a cheaper and easier way would be to throw in hornworts and then removing large clumps of it from time to time...
Biohome is purely to enhance the ammonia and nitrite breakdown....but I'm more of a substrat pro believer nowadays

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## Shadow

> Oh and by the way, Biohome in itself, does not do the job of keeping nitrites and ammonia at 0 ppm. The bacteria living within it, is doing the job. Unless of course, Biohome has the same ability like zeolite, in removing ammonia and it's by-products.


What biohome did was just to provide as much as survace area. They claim they have the largest surface area compare to their competitor. 

Anyway, as long as your plants is healthy, it will help take in the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

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## stormhawk

Yes I understand, but my response was directed more towards the claims of this product being ultimately superior to any other filter media out there. Understandably, it is touted as such and such by their sellers, but to me, it's just a selling gimmick to get people to buy. 

I was never sold on their claims, and therefore still remain a skeptic as to Biohome's abilities.

Oh and that photograph on the site showing Biohome absorbing a dark liquid.. heck I think a good quality sponge could do just the same.  :Laughing:

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## Shadow

misleading marketing, report it to CASE ...  :Laughing:

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## Fuzzy

Heh, actually I'm hedging my bets with a mix of Zeolite, Eheim Substrat Pro and Biohome / Biohome plus in my various setups.

It does seem to complete cycling (colonize BB) faster than generic ceramic rings though.

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## Shadow

I don't think it will make cycling faster. It is just like ceramic ring, only have bigger surface area due to its porosity.

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## vinz

Old thread, but it came up when I Googled about Biohome removing Nitrates after reading about it in another filtration search result.

Quote for Biohome website:
"With the massive surface area in BIOHOME, you can say goodbye to huge and chunky biomats, bioballs, etc. This high surface area allows us to effectively treat large amounts of aquarium water with 1 kg of BIOHOME. All you need is a very small compartment for biological filtration! As a guide, 1kg of BIOHOME = approx. 1.25 Litres in volume.

For the reduction of Nitrate, BIOHOME promotes denitrifying (anaerobic) bacteria to grow within it’s unique structure. It is this bacteria that reduces Nitrates. To achieve Nitrate reduction we recommend 1kg of BIOHOME per 100 litres of water. Amazing results have been seen in the reduction of Nitrates within 4-6 months of using BIOHOME in a filter."

This pretty much shows why the experiment failed, but NO3 reduction was observed in the live tank.

Not promoting Biohome, just sharing info found. I think whether NO3 filtration is ever achieved with Biohome is iffy, depending on the setup of the filtration and many other factors.

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## vinz

Oh... one more thing. The bacteria that converts nitrites to nitrate requires anaerobic environments, right? So theoretically, it will be hard to grow them in a moderate to high growth planted tank as our water is highly oxygenated for most of the day.

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## tetrakid

> Old thread...
> 
> ...This pretty much shows why the experiment failed, but NO3 reduction was observed in the live tank...
> 
> ... just sharing info found. I think whether NO3 filtration is ever achieved with Biohome is iffy, depending on the setup of the filtration and many other factors.


@vinz

Do you think you can elaborate on this? Please do, as it is interesting to know your views.

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## vinz

This is just my conjecture, so please take with a good pinch of critical thinking. 

1. The quote from Biohome manufacturer states that it takes 4 to 6 months to establish the bacteria that consumes nitrate. The experiment was significant shorter than that.
2. From the comments, it seems that the Biohome was "fresh" and not from an established tank, so no bacteria colony yet.
3. The shrimp tank was 3 months old, close enough to the period required to establish the Nitrate chomping bacteria. It might have been Biohome, it might simply be the moss consuming enough. Not enough information about the tank to really confirm.
4. I think its iffy because I feel it depends alot on bio load, water flow, oxygenation levels.

Technically, if you have enough of similar type of media, you could establish the same Nitrate chomping bacteria. I looked up MarinePure's website and they made the same claim, albiet less assured for one of their block shaped product. The idea is that you need to have media that is thick enough that as water travels through the media, at some point enough O2 is consumed by previous 2 usual types of bacteria that it creates the anaerobic conditions required for the third type of bacteria to start growing. You also need enough so that the first two bacteria hasn't colonised every nanometer of surface and no space is left for the latter.

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## tetrakid

@vinz

Thank you for the comments. I do agree with you.

I feel that although that media has better overall surface area when new, it will be only a matter of time when the micro pores on the media become clogged, thus preventing effective water flow through them to be of any good.

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## Dscheng

Is it true that Marine Pure media is best for adsorbing water? The media has the open-flow porosity. MP is quite popular too. Hmm.

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## vinz

I use MarinePure because a friend had tried different brands and found this to be most effective.

How well water flows through the media is dependent on how big the gaps are between them. Water will take the path of least resistance and will try to flow around the media through the big gaps. Just occurred to me, I made the mistake of buying the MP balls instead of blocks. The balls are about an inch and a half in diameter, and there are big of gaps between them. :-(

Thay said, if what MP claims (better porosity) is true, then compared to other media, when everything else is equal, water should flow (not absorb) through MP better.

Looks I need to spend money again...

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## limz_777

there is a old discussion i read before that biohome need to be in a dark environment to be optimum , feel threadstarter should use a proper establish filter of pure biohome to treat a pail of high nitrate water, to see if it works

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## Dscheng

> I use MarinePure because a friend had tried different brands and found this to be most effective.
> 
> How well water flows through the media is dependent on how big the gaps are between them. Water will take the path of least resistance and will try to flow around the media through the big gaps. Just occurred to me, I made the mistake of buying the MP balls instead of blocks. The balls are about an inch and a half in diameter, and there are big of gaps between them. :-(
> 
> Thay said, if what MP claims (better porosity) is true, then compared to other media, when everything else is equal, water should flow (not absorb) through MP better.
> 
> Looks I need to spend money again...
> 
> ~ Sent from Moto X Style via Tapatalk ~


 Yes it should be optimal water flow better than other brand. I use mixture of Bio hom plus and MP. Can't find any different. So long my nitrate fall below 5 or so i am happy haha. Sorry that i poison you :P

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## vinz

Haha, was already poisoned. Just had that realisation that my setup is sub-optimal. Anyway, it's just about time to replace some of my media.

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## vinz

More info from MarinePure:



> For removal of Nitrates (Denitrification)
> 
> Initial rinse of media with water to remove surface particulate created during shipping.
> If tap water is used, perform second rinse with tank water to remove chlorine. Locate media in a passive location such as in a sump, under gravel bed, or as part of a reef structure. NOTE: If desired, the product can be easily shaped using a hand saw or coarse sand paper. Make sure to rinse off particulate before placing in tank.Wear a a dust mask to avoid breathing in particulate.


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