DIY Natureef Style Denitrator Build and Data thread...

[mrx66699]

Yes its free just come buy I have tons .....anyone that would want any to start up is welcome to stop buy....I was just about to the point of removing some as its just gone crazy and it almost too much in the chamber.....

My nitrates remain undetectable and my phosphates are now down to .06 ......and fluctuations with the p04 are still small if I do not dose as I suspect they are still leaching out ....

 

[DRThompson]

Great write up!! I've had my natureef denitrifier 5 years with great results. Unfortunately it has been offline for about a year now had a problem with the Doser and the system crashed. I didn't catch it in time. Is there any way one of you guys can sell some of your bacteria so I can start it back up. Fixing up the system and getting it back on track. Let me know!!! It would be appreciated!! I'm in north lauderdale Florida.

I live in coral springs, you are welcome to some of mine if closer. Just PM me

 

[billy71]

Thanks guys I appreciate that. I'll send a pm as soon as I get it filled up in the next couple days. Thanks again

 

[Greg 45]

Thank You For The HELP

Thank You For The HELP

I would like to thank mrx and drt for guiding me in the right direction on building a methanol reactor. A little back round , My system is over 1200 gallons 90 % anemones from mertens ,hadoni , bubble tips . I started a death spiral and could not find the source. After searching all the way back to the ro /di I found nothing. Low and behold some one dropped off there tank and fish at my work place with all there bags of extra goodies. There were some api test kits I try them all low and behold nitrates blood red. Bingo here is my problem. So I read all of the post on methanol and contacted these gentlemen . No to show some pictures of system and what a 40 gallon holding chamber looks like. THANK YOU mrx and drt .
Trying to upload pic's

 

[Greg 45]

Pictures of system

Pictures of system

reactor build

 

[mrx66699]

Looks very good Greg....I like the positioning of the media chambers ...nice to meet and talk with you this evening and let me know if you need anything....

 

[Greg 45]

Just a update waiting on first cycle (anticipation)
Almost as fun as watching grass grow LOL
Cannot wait to do first flush

 

[Greg 45]

Reactor update

Reactor update

Picked up some bacteria here in n.j. on Monday from dnov99 about a cup full added to reactor. Also Matt sending some will be here on Monday. Nitrates are starting to drop from dark red to this reading today . Thank You everyone for the help . Picture will not load down between 20 and 40 on api test kit.

 

[mrx66699]

Sounds good Greg it should be there on Monday it says ....priority mail

 

[Pimentinha1987]

Ha!! I guess I will have to stop by your house Greg....
I'm thinking about building me one of these things as well.


I gotta give props to you guys for posting this...
I have a tremendous headache (I assume from ready all of this formulas and whatnot) but it was worth reading the whole thing.

Once again, thanks Dr.T and mrx

 

[Greg 45]

Pimentinha shoot me a pm and we can get together
It's a long trip frip from Fla. to N.J.
Dave and Matt went out of there way to help me with this build
I am still in the newbe stages of this
Wensday was first flush skimmer went nuts had to turn back , one gallon came out in 12 hrs and is was nassty
Waiting on second flush
You need to be patient with this and not rush

 

[mrx66699]

Great to hear Greg.....yes patients is a virtue when you are cycling the first few times until you have it set on your 3 or 4 cycles per day automaticly with a timer or controller ....

Greg post up some of the measurement pics with the daily measurements as it cycles for the second time so everyone can follow if you can...

 

[Greg 45]

I am having a hard time posting picture can anyone pm with advice to make it easier to upload.
Todays up date tested water in reactor getting lower about 10 ppm nitrates .
The bacteria is starting to take hold to the egg crate and form some strands and brown bacteria.
Hopefully I can flush the system on sat or sunday.
On the first flush on Wed . the skimmer went nuts had to turn it down pulled out a gallon of nasty smelling green gunk .
What I like so far about this instead of bio pellets is the you can control the system like adjusting the volume on you radio , and can monitor whats going on .
When I get nitrates under control will add another doser for the phosphates.
Again thanks Matt and Dave for the help

 

[lnevo]

Just to offer a comparison, most people use a normal circulating reactor for pellets, but you can control the in/out by having a recirculating reactor where the main pump keeps everything tumbling and you use another pump to feed the reactor

 

[Greg 45]

Inevo I am using this as a comparison . I owned multiple bio pellet reactor's . The last one that I owned was the reef dynamics bpr 1000 . As explaned to me by jeff the pellets are a machine running at 10000 rpm ,there is no slowing down this rpm. The don't know when to stop or the amount of nitrate in the system. They just keep going like the battery bunny.

 

[mrx66699]

Greg go to photobucket and sign up if you have not already now upload the photo to your library ...now select the photo you want to post on rc and you will see some links chose the appropriate link ...copy it ....now open another tab on your browser and go to the site you want to post the pic to and then paste the link into your writing

 

[mrx66699]

Just to offer a comparison, most people use a normal circulating reactor for pellets, but you can control the in/out by having a recirculating reactor where the main pump keeps everything tumbling and you use another pump to feed the reactor

Biipellets take months to see anything with and then you have know true way of knowing are they working or is it something else your doing or what's even happening you do not have any control over the output of volume being treated to an exact 0 nitrate or phosphate its just an on switch ....with this you control how often the chamber reaches 0 nitrates and how often you flush the volume % of your tank water per day ....I flush 90 gal a day with an exact 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates every time it flushes .......30 gal 3 times a day

 

[lnevo]

Oh yeah I was just saying that you can have some control with biopellets with the right configuration. I think this is the preferable method IMO.

 

[Greg 45]

Sunday update . 2nd flush was is order today nitrates were at o . I had a special guest Pimentinha 1987 who stopped by to check out the reactor . After flushing again for only 15 min. he couldent believe the amount of crud that came out of the skimmer. After the flush we checked nitrates in the reactor , it was around 60 ppm. So using Dave's calculator and water volume of 140 I came up with est. of 30 ml of straight methanol.

 

[mrx66699]

That seems high if your using straight methanol Greg....I cut it as recommended from our calculations and findings .....are you sure 60ppm of nitrate is taking 30 mil of straight methanol ....you are going to have a cyano outbreak if you are dumping any leftover methanol back into your system as you will be feeding it every time you flush.... you may want to cut that back and then check nitrates at the next flush point and then readjust from there so you are only feeding the minimal amount to reach the 0 ppm objective