Continuum Aquatics Bact . Rox Nitrazex & Bactergen F

So I wanted to have a try at lowering nitrates through De-nirtrifying bacteria. Matrix was one of the options, but I found this product on an online store here in Aus. I couldn't find any online reviews at all. It sounded like it should do the trick but info was a bit scarce. I decided to give it a try anyway (I tend to buck the trend quite often )

One of the things I don't like is that the Contiuum web site does not list all of the information about their products that is actually available on the labeling. I didn't know if this was a man made product or a natural one. More on that in a bit.

Primarily I was after something that would support de-nitrifying bacteria, and also in a small size. A lot of media is quite chunky, but I wanted to put it in the bottom of my Aqua-one Aquastyle 620 box filter. Again that info wasn't available on the web site so I took a bit of a punt.

OK so first off a picture of the product. I bought 500ml the packaging is pretty up-market I'd say. I paid $14.95 AU for it.


I took a picture of the back label but it was not good, and I can't be bothered taking another one now. But the info on the ingredients was: "Proprietary extremely porous natural stone". I'm not quite sure how natural stone can be proprietary, but that answered the "is it man made" question! I guess it is some sort of pumice like rock.

As for the size, the following pic should give a good idea.



The instructions said it that you needed to wash it in deminieralised water or tank water before use. I initially put it in a small container and added RO water, there was a very fine dust started to float up into the air! I suggest not breathing it in! I realized my container wasn't big enough to wash it properly so I put it in my water change bucket with some filtered rain water tank, water.


Pretty murky!! as you can see some of it floats too.

Getting it back out of the bucket wasn't so easy with the floating. A sieve would probably have hastened the process. I transferred it into my original small container with some RO water, this was to soak with the Bacteria I purchased.




The bacteria is called bacter gen F product pictures below:




It specifically states that it contains both aerobic and anerobic bacteria (not on that picture). Whether other bacterial products have both I'm not sure. I've used fluval and nutrafin cycle in the past. I purchased a 250ml bottle but they must have run out of stock and instead sent me a 500ml bottle at no additional cost The cost of the 250ml bottle was $22.95 AU so not exactly cheap.

I followed the instructions (mostly) and added a cap-full to my small container. You are supposed to let it soak 24 hours, but I only left it for about 6 hours. As this is not a new filter setup (I retained my existing bio-media) I'm not too concerned about the initial seeding.

The picture below shows where I have put it in the box filter. Under the grate which is usually (in the conventional configuration) just an empty channel. I have retained the original aqua-one noodles above the grate.


As you can see the grate has a ridge running down the middle. This presented a bit of a challenge getting it down into the media. the floating bits also presented a bit of a problem. It would have been better if I'd not used so much water for the bacteria soak, so that the water was only in the channel and not over the edges.

After I put the other media back in and back on the tank I started up the filter. The tank immediately went cloudy, so I suspect I should have done a second rinse of the media. Hopefully it won't take too long to clear up.

I was a little concerned around whether the media would restrict the flow too much and cause the filter to back up and overflow, but it was fine. Picture below installed and running




It will be a while before I know whether it is making a difference to my nitrates I suspect, as from what I have read it takes a while for de-nitrifying bacteria to establish. It may not work at all as the flow rate through my filter is reasonably high (or at least it says so on the powerhead). I think it is rated at 550L / hour (which seems an awful lot more than what it appears to put out).

So that's about it. No issues with the product, it was pretty much the perfect size for the application I had in mind (both the size of the individual media, and the amount that I purchased (I kept a tiny bit to put into my fluval 2 central filter thingie in case I start up my old 30L tank as a hospital/quarantine tank).

I guess I will post back in a couple of weeks or maybe longer as to whether it appears to have made a difference to my nitrates. In any case 500ml is supposed to be enough for double my size tank, so combined with the existing media, and the fluval media in my fluval U2, I think I have more than enough biological media in my tank now

I guess they say you can never have too much filtration!

I may create another thread to show how I have setup the box filter overall, as the standard configuration is pretty ordinary really, and it didn't take long for me to want to modify it.

Tony.

 

Well I'll chime in here to say that it sure looks like the same stuff as Matrix. Has the same sizes too. Small, medium and large versions vs. Matrix , Matrix and Pond Matrix. Some pieces float, just like Matrix. Has basically the same instructions as Matrix and the same amounts. Basically the same price as Matrix too. If this is the small version then it is just like and wants slower flow (Seachem says 50gph or less). If it is the medium or large, you can have normal flow. This is what Seachem says:

Matrix is extremely porous so the majority of its surface area is internal. The pores allow water to penetrate throughout the media but restrict its flow. Aerobic bacteria colonize near the surface where oxygen is plentiful, but use up the oxygen leaving the interior anaerobic and allowing denitrifying bacteria to thrive.

To make cleaning easier, might want to put all that in mesh bags for easy removal.

Sure would like to see a screen shot of the back label that is readable. Anywho, looks like good stuff.

 

The main issue is with the curvature of the label. I just tried with my phone but no good. I'll try with the 20mm lens as that has a lot of depth of field. I've not ever used (or seen) matrix. Only the standard media that came with my tank, and fluval's biomax U series (without the hole in the middle) which came with my Fluval U2 filter... I was kinda hopefull that this stuff would be ok with a higher flow, as they don't mention any restrictions like seachem do.

OK here are two pics of the back labels. it actually says to use it in a filter with good water flow, so we'll see I guess





edit: good idea on the mesh bag. if I could get a couple long thin mesh bags that would solve the issue of the channel down the middle of the grate too!

Tony.

 

Great, thanks for the info. I'm going out on a limb, but I would say it's basically the same as Matrix, a kind of natural pumice stone. Good flow meaning it will work just fine.

 

Cool, yes from what I understand with matrix, you want slow flow for denitrification to try an make sure the oxygen is depleted, if the small matrix doesn't work with a high flow (for denitrification) then I suspect this probably isn't going to either.

I was hopeful it would be different and therefore work ok in a relatively high flow. If not I can always look at making a slow flow dedicated denitrifier using this media Not that my nitrates are particularly bad, but I would like to do a bit less than 50% weekly water changes. back to 20 - 30% would be nice.

Tony.

 

Cool, yes from what I understand with matrix, you want slow flow for denitrification to try an make sure the oxygen is depleted, if the small matrix doesn't work with a high flow (for denitrification) then I suspect this probably isn't going to either.

I was hopeful it would be different and therefore work ok in a relatively high flow. If not I can always look at making a slow flow dedicated denitrifier using this media Not that my nitrates are particularly bad, but I would like to do a bit less than 50% weekly water changes. back to 20 - 30% would be nice.

Tony.

Almost... if using Denitrate (which is just a smaller version of Matrix) then slower flow would be best. If using regular Matrix or Pond Matrix, higher flow is just fine.

 

Ok Thought I'd post an update. I did 50% water change last week (20% on Wed, 30% on Sat) which was my normal regime. It was sitting between 10 - 20 last wed after the 30% on Sat. I had added 10 cardnial tetras the week before, unfortunately four didn't make it, first time I've ever lost new fish anyway the point is there were an additional 6 fish in the tank and I was feeding more as well.

So expecting to need to do another 20% water change tonight to keep on top of things (don't really want to do 50% in one go, hence the bi-weekly) I tested the nitrates and they are sitting at between 5 - 10

I'll skip the mid-week and see how they are on Sat. Hopefully I have some de-nitrification happening and can reach my goal of only needing to do 20 - 30% weekly water changes, once a week

Tony.