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Old 12/01/2004, 04:02 AM
wayne in norway wayne in norway is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Stavanger, Norway
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Raw water to the skimmer means raw tank water goes to the skimmer first - this is the dirtiest water. Skim out as much as possible, pass this cleaned water to the filter bacteria to reduce load on them.
I will read the references you quote. However my first impressions would be , based on experience looking at sand beds in tanks and beaches that you are right to say bacterial numbers aren't much affescted by particle size and depth. However what I would say is that both of these, and water flow have direct efects on the behaviour of some of these bacteria as they have a control on the flow of oxygenated water through a sand bed.
Particle size increases - thickness aerobic layer increases as water penetrates more easily
Depth - more depth .... well obviously dissolved oxygen content decreases with depth
Water flow - higher = greater thickness richly aerobic zone.

SO it's not necessarily a measure of mow many bacteria are there, as to what they're getting up to.