Tank With Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate Chemical Neutralisers - Discussion

I'll chuck this in to the discussion. At my previously local MA they set up a small marine aquarium with one of these and put a pair of Clownfish in there 5 minutes later. The fish thrived.

That's very interesting indeed 

I imagine it would work best on a tank with a large surface area of e.g. wood to also harbour a colony of beneficial bacteria...  would it not ultimately kill off plants though?

Zero nitrates wouldnt be that good for plants I would think

This was my thought too. A chemical filter that perfectly removed ammonia, nitrite and therefore nitrates would be a mixed blessing. Ideal for fish (and fishkeepers) but not good for plants long-term. Perhaps the benefits would outweigh this problem though if we could just dose with nitrate?? Imagine if the only maintenance required was a water change every so often and a nitrate dose   

I think you're right on that, Fiona. I thought all plants needed nitrates but in the sea I guess levels would be negligible.

Corals are animals not plants, that's why they need low nitrate. I can't think of any plants used in marine tanks. But marine tanks in general need low nitrate.

I've been researching this subject for a few days and the most comprehensive research I can find ('Ecology of the Planet Aquarium'-Diana Walstad) indicates that plants will greatly prefer ammonia as their N source over nitrates. Thus, plants could survive entirely without nitrates as long as they had ammonia.

So a 'perfect' chemical filter which removed ammonia and nitrites is back on the cards then? Well I guess not, because instead of the bacteria in the filter not having anything to eat (and of course not being needed), now the plants wouldn't; I don't think plants can survive without nitrogen, no matter how undemanding they are. (The plants would compete with the chemical filter for ammonia, and presumably lose.)

So, I suppose one could use the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate neutraliser, but then one would have to dose with a source of nitrogen for the plants. Some may consider this an acceptable trade-off.

But the more I research the benefits of plants (cheap, and theoretically eternal) a heavily-planted moderately-filtered low-tech aquarium is preferable to the 'perfect filter'. It's much (much) more cost effective, and natural.

(Edited to add: of course, one could always go for fully synthetic plants with the 'perfect filter', assuming they were sufficiently life-like. But this ignores the other benefits which live plants bring.)