It's an interesting concept. There's a new "thing", bit of knowledge going around some of the reefing boards on utilizing carbonaceous substances such as sugar, molasses, VODKA, and other substances that can be turned into certain kinds of sugars by particular bacteria, thus reducing nitrogenous waste levels in those systems. Reef systems must be nutrient poor, otherwise you kill 'em. The final stage of nitrogen reduction in these systems is nitrate, and that requires anaerobic bacteria and slow flow rates to gain its final conversion (oxidation) to nitrogen gas.
Does that make sense? This is specific to saltwater setups, I don't know if it's being used in fresh.