I have set up a DIY coil denitrator for the past 6 weeks. Its has about 100ft of RO tubing in it on a 125g tank. Its set about 1 drip a sec. Now is the nitrate level coming out the denitrator supposed to be higher or lower than the DT? Mine is coming out higher. LFS told me slower the drip is better???? Any ideas?? Thanks
Coil Denitrator help
- Thread starter bmkj02
- Start date
I take it you have a nitrate problem? You should find out the cause of the nitrates. Never been a fan of coil denitrators. My father tried one about 1-2 years ago, I remember it taking a while to start lowering nitrates on the drip line. He ended up just throwing it out after about 6-7 months after I convinced him to find the problem instead of just using a band-aid.
I helped him remove all the live rock and rinse it in fresh salt water. We also vacuumed his sandbed and cleaned the sump and skimmer really good and did 2 50% water changes in a week. After about 2-3 months no more tracable nitrates.
Not to mention I changed his feeding habits. Im pretty sure he was over feeding, not saying thats what causing yours but its an area to look at.
I helped him remove all the live rock and rinse it in fresh salt water. We also vacuumed his sandbed and cleaned the sump and skimmer really good and did 2 50% water changes in a week. After about 2-3 months no more tracable nitrates.
Not to mention I changed his feeding habits. Im pretty sure he was over feeding, not saying thats what causing yours but its an area to look at.
Chondro 5
Member
I've been running a coil denitrator for over two years on a 50 gallon and it works great! You mentioned that you ran 100 feet of tubing, but did you also put bio balls in the chamber? Perhaps the aerobic breakdown is all that's occurring in the tube and w/o bio balls you don't have the potential for anaerobic breakdown to turn the nitrate into nitrogen gas? After 6 weeks you should probably be at a higher flow rate than 1 drop per second so maybe your break-in time is slow because you've stayed at 1 drop longer than necessary?
Its a 4" PVC tube x 26" tall. Has 100ft of RO tubing and yes its filled the rest with bio balls. So are you saying to spead it up? Someone also mention that it is still cycling and to slow it down till it cycles and then speed it up. :headwally:
definitely speed up your drip rate. I have mines running for about 1.5 year and it's working great. I set the drip rate and forget it. I just check it from time to time to make sure it's dripping. I think I am over kill on this nitrate removal thing.. I have this coil denitrator, bio pellets, GFO, all running at the same time. I guess everything helps. 
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