Departments of Chemistry (Ken S. Feldman, Allison A. Place) and Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (Sanjay Joshi), The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, and Route 66 Marine, Gardena, California (Gary White)
Ken S. Feldman
Recent Content
Elemental Analysis of Skimmate: What Does a Protein Skimmer Actually Remove from Aquarium Water?
The rather counterintuitive observation that protein skimmers remove only 20 – 35% of the measurable Total Organic Carbon (TOC) in reef aquarium water (Feldman, 2009; Feldman, 2010) begs the question, “what is all that “stuff” that collects in our skimmer cups?”…
Further Studies on Protein Skimmer Performance
We published a paper on skimmer performance in the January 2009 issue of Advanced Aquarist magazine that detailed, for the first time, an experimental methodology to provide meaningful metrics for both the rate at which skimmers removed organics and the extent of the removal of these organics from aquarium water (Feldman, 2009).…
The Development of a Method for the Quantitative Evaluation of Protein Skimmer Performance
Purifying aquarium water with a protein skimmer represents one of the major strategies for maintaining water quality. This singular piece of equipment can often constitute the major set-up capital expense after the tank itself.…
Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and the Reef Aquarium: an Initial Survey, Part II
Editor’s Note: This article continues from last month’s Advanced Aquarist.
Figure 8. Invertebrate population in the author’s tank during the “week in the life” study.…
Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and the Reef Aquarium: an Initial Survey, Part I
These questions will be probed through review of the relevant literature on (non-aquarium) field studies and by experimentation on marine aquarium water samples taken from a range of aquarists’ tanks:
- What are Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC), Particulate Organic Carbon (POC), and Total Organic Carbon (TOC)?
Coral Coloration and Incident Light: A Photographic Essay
Introduction
Viewing a reef tank as “kinetic art” has sensitized many aquarists to the complex multifactoral relationships between a host of tank parameters and the color of corals, particularly small polyped scleractinians (SPS’s).…
Granular Activated Carbon, Part 2: Modeling of Operational Parameters for Dissolved Organic Carbon Removal from Marine Aquaria
Results and Discussion
Using the Langmuir Isotherm Model to Calculate the Total Binding Capacity of Hydrocarbon2 (HC2)
Solutions of basic blue 3 dye (BB3) and, independently, fluorescein disodium (FL) in 35 ppt salinity salt water were prepared by adding 30 mg of dye to 1.20 L of salt water (from Instant Ocean salt mix and distilled water, 77 oF).…
Granular Activated Carbon, Part 1: Modeling of Operational Parameters for Dissolved Organic Carbon Removal from Marine Aquaria
Introduction
GAC and the Aquarium
The use of granular activated carbon (GAC) for decolorizing marine aquarium water has had a long and successful history. In fact, prior to the introduction of this filtering agent into the saltwater aquarium hobby, the central role of this technology in water remediation efforts ensured that a large body of data existed which spoke to the basics of contaminant removal from drinking water and wastewater by carbon-based media (Bansal, 2005; Cheremisinoff, 1993; Kvech, 1997).…