Are we converting Ammonia & Nitrite fast enough?

[dufflight]

While cycling a new aquarium(650ltrs) I noticed that even with a small amount of fish I was able to get good Nitrate readings. The water was from a mature system and some of the bio media was also seeded with bacteria. The tank has a glass lid so I'm thinking the ammonia does not get losted into the air. And beside some duckweed there are no plants to take the nitrate out. But how much ammonia & nitrite do we lose in an AP system. And how can we minimize this.

[dufflight]

Cascading GB's seems to give the bacteria more time to process the water in a single pass. I have 4 500ltr gb that drain into a second gb or bio filter before returning to the FT.

[Tsaphah]

My system won't be able to flow from one GB into another, I plan on setting up a CHOP system, but will use float switch on the pump to prevent it running dry, as I think my pump may empty the sump before the next cycle starts, but I thought of having duckweed in the sump, or using another pump in the sump on a timer to feed a tower system.

Wonder how much effect airation has on removing ammonia from the FT?

I got 3 IBC's on Friday, spent the weekend washing them and cutting to size. Still need to get some fittings and gravel though.

[dufflight]

Wonder how much effect airation has on removing ammonia from the FT?

Ammonia can be gased off. I'm looking more at converting it before it gets the chance. All systems lose Am & Ni and still grow plants well. My thought is to improve on this.
You can also add duckweed to take some of the ammonia out of a system. When cycling a new fish tank for inside I dropped in a lot of duckweed to help with the ammonia until the bacteria got going.