Hi,
I’m a new member to MASA as well as TASA. I used to have tropical fish and a range of Synodontis species. At the moment I have no active aquariums. Recently I’ve tried to develop a method for modeling the nitrogen cycle in an aquarium setup. The model presents a graph of the aquarium concentration levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and nitrogen with respect to time. The model can be adjusted according to tank size and inlet/outlet flow rate. Needles to say the model falls far short of reality.
It does give quite a good qualitative description of the dynamics during the startup process of a new aquarium.
When I started this project I didn’t have marine aquariums in mind, but I was told by a user from TASA that marine fish keepers are more serious when it comes to recording and documenting their water parameters.
My aim is to gather enough experimental data on the fluctuating levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate during aquarium start up to allow adjustments to the model parameters so that it more accurately represents what is actually happening in existing aquariums.
I understand there are a lot of differences between different aquarists’ setups, water conditions and operation. Aside from this fact I believe that it is possible to obtain a generalized trend of behavior if enough experimental data can be gathered.
So if someone is willing to share his log records of ammonia, nitrites or nitrate levels during fish tank start up along with his tank volume, flow rates and water temp, I might be able to tweak the model to be more realistic. Here is an example of the model output in Matlab:
Or without denitrifying bacteria:
Any comments / suggestions / critique are welcomed.
Thank you
I’m a new member to MASA as well as TASA. I used to have tropical fish and a range of Synodontis species. At the moment I have no active aquariums. Recently I’ve tried to develop a method for modeling the nitrogen cycle in an aquarium setup. The model presents a graph of the aquarium concentration levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and nitrogen with respect to time. The model can be adjusted according to tank size and inlet/outlet flow rate. Needles to say the model falls far short of reality.
It does give quite a good qualitative description of the dynamics during the startup process of a new aquarium.
When I started this project I didn’t have marine aquariums in mind, but I was told by a user from TASA that marine fish keepers are more serious when it comes to recording and documenting their water parameters.
My aim is to gather enough experimental data on the fluctuating levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate during aquarium start up to allow adjustments to the model parameters so that it more accurately represents what is actually happening in existing aquariums.
I understand there are a lot of differences between different aquarists’ setups, water conditions and operation. Aside from this fact I believe that it is possible to obtain a generalized trend of behavior if enough experimental data can be gathered.
So if someone is willing to share his log records of ammonia, nitrites or nitrate levels during fish tank start up along with his tank volume, flow rates and water temp, I might be able to tweak the model to be more realistic. Here is an example of the model output in Matlab:
Or without denitrifying bacteria:
Any comments / suggestions / critique are welcomed.
Thank you