Are these worth building do they actually work good at reducing a noticeable amount of nitrates in the system. I have a 75 gallon bow front with a Megaflow 2 sump wich really limits me to what i can do.but think i have a enough room under the stand to add one of these units. I made a ATS but it is only 9''x6'' wich isn't large enough and a crappy old Berlin 250 skimmer( I know i need a new skimmer) gonna get a vertex or a RO in the new year. I added a kent wood air stone in the bottom chamber and it doubles the output for sure great mod for people who have one of these skimmers still . Anyways was considering building one if it's worth it. Love to hear some input from you fellas who run them..Thanks alot
De-nitrator
- Thread starter moosehead
- Start date
I have run a coil denitrator on my 180g display for 3 years now, and I'm building one for my new 80g tank. I cant tell you for sure that the denitrator is the reason, but other than a skimmer and phosban reactor I only have biological filtration. Nitrates are always 0 and I haven't had a problem with nuisance algae in years, other than the occasional bubble algae flare up when I need to change the phosban.
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
When we migrated from a 180G to our 450G, we got plagued with GHA and cyano for a time. For the life of me I could not get nitrates under control and I wasn't going to starve our fish. I ended up implementing a sulfur denitrator. It worked Amazing. It got the nitrates under control quick. During this time I built an ATS as I wanted to keep things as natural as possible. Once I put the ATS online I decommissioned the sulfur denitrator. Now the ATS handles the job of nitrate control to include a descent job of phosphates and many other benefits.
Probably not. The bacteria that live in the chamber should be in an anoxic environment and the bacteria that are living on the bioballs are probably in a very oxygenated environment from the sump. It wont hurt to use them, just don't expect it to work quicker.
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
My sulfur denitrator was working within the first week, actually in about 3 or so days. Amazing actually.
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
Very true. Probably the biggest reason wet/dry trickle filters are not used too much in the hobby anymore.
nemodan
New member
In the space you are using for bio balls add something like Matrix or siporax . That will be much better because you will be growing anaerobic and aerobic bacterias the reduce NO3 levels.
Cheers
Daniel
Sounds good ! I'l give it a try..Thanks
