DIY Sulfur Denitrator
- Thread starter djfrankie
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Black71gp
New member
look at your page 33.. 7 more and you get a split!!!!!!!!
as to the thread.. my reactor is still going into a 5 gallon bucket. I had a horrible ich outbreak in my tank.. had to pull all the fish into a QT so should help lower the nitrates as well...... sitting at litk .5 out of the reactor.. from the top it looks clear.. but from the side its slight pink... salifert test kit
as to the thread.. my reactor is still going into a 5 gallon bucket. I had a horrible ich outbreak in my tank.. had to pull all the fish into a QT so should help lower the nitrates as well...... sitting at litk .5 out of the reactor.. from the top it looks clear.. but from the side its slight pink... salifert test kit
TulsaReefer
New member
It's also nice to see that sulfur reactors are becoming more mainstream and not considered "crazy" as much as they were in the recent past. When I set mine up a year ago I got quite a few strange looks from those who I told about it. And I wasn't so sure about it myself at first, though the science and concept behind it seemed very sound. But now after a year of not worrying about Nitrates, having my tank look great, I'm really happy with how things are going. I feed my fish until they are extremely fat and happy, and I have a population of pods, worms and other critters living off the scraps now that is amazing. And while I still do water changes as needed, I'm not worried about my Nitrates getting out of hand if I miss one once in a while.
And while some claim that Nitrates don't effect corals, and maybe they don't, but I do know this, I have some soft corals that didn't expand like they do now, and maybe it's because I'm feeding more and not just the Nitrate level, but whatever it is, it's great.
And while some claim that Nitrates don't effect corals, and maybe they don't, but I do know this, I have some soft corals that didn't expand like they do now, and maybe it's because I'm feeding more and not just the Nitrate level, but whatever it is, it's great.
Horace
New member
All I can tell you is my tank when it was super low nutrient, zero nitrate and under .02 phosphate, the corals looked much less healthy than it did when there were some levels of nitrate. Im not saying that No3 was the thing that made the tank look better (though I suspect it is). IMO our tanks simply lack the food necessary to properly feed many of our corals in a low nutrient environment (which is why my softies always suffered). Letting the NO3 rise (once again IMO) serves as a food source of sorts to the corals. Growth and color were never better
wizsmaster
Moved On
Kurt,
Statements like yours above are what give RC, and the folks on RC such a bad rep.
Next time you have an opinion to share, please let others know the first time around that it's nothing but your opinion, and personal experimentation ... and not a FACT!
Thanks,
marco
TulsaReefer
New member
So is it possible it's not the nitrates, it's that you are now feeding your tank more, which in turn your case is potentially causing the elevated nitrates? Then what you're proposing is that if you feed your tank more, the corals are able to tolerate a higher than natural level of nitrate? I might buy into this, but to me here's an even better idea, and the goal of many on this thread; to provide near natural seawater levels of Nitrate, AND being able to make their tanks food rich for their corals.
Food rich to me means feeding the tank with enough food that the entire ecosystem is supported, including food for everything in the food chain. Ron Shimek discussed during a talk he did at an event I attended last year, that corals are best suited to a continuous supply of low quality food. Corals are best adapted to thrive on a continuous supplies of low quality food, not sporadic quantities (once or twice a day for a few minutes) of high quality food. Eric Borneman also covers this in a past issues of Reefkeeping (CoralMania). So, by being able to manage nitrates, I am now able to feed my tank a lot more than before, and much of that food eventually becomes this "low quality" food that Ron and to some degree I interpret Eric is talking about. The food I periodically feed (nori, cyclopeze, mysis, etc.) is high quality when it goes in the tank, but is converted by the primary consumers such as fish, worms, and pods, into a more continuous supply of lower quality food such as their feces, associated bacteria, and other of their waste products. This becomes the continuous low quality food for the corals. In nature reefs don't typically have Nitrate levels above about .1 ppm, so I doubt that corals need elevated Nitrate for health and growth. If I had an option I'd much rather do what Eric suggest, do a 2 to 3 times tank volume water change daily, but that's not really practical for me, so I'm taking a route that allows to limit some of the nutrients that typically cause issues such as unwanted algae growth.
I can't debate the ability for corals to directly uptake Nitrate, I'm not well enough versed in coral biology to discuss this, but I'm sure there must be some people here and on other sites that can. I'd suggest if we want to continue this line of discussion, let's move it to it's own thread. In that spirit, I've started a new thread and copied this message to it, and will cross link the two. Find the new thread here: Nitrate levels and coral growth and health
saltydog64
New member
Kurt...............listen up will you....this thread is NOT a debate on Nitrates...........so take you stuff some else...and smart'n up will ya.
saltydog64
New member
Temperature in SR
Temperature in SR
Help....:strooper:
dj I need your input on a few questions. First to make a longgggggggg story short, as you know I got my DJDenitrator to cycle running out of a 5 g bucket and now it's on my tank. I'm currently discharging in to a bucket, not the tank, good thing as the SR is pumping out VERY high nitirite. About 10 days ago I seeded it with NBC#9 but still no go.
This am I removed the vent valve (have been getting "some gas", but not like before,anyhow, I stuck a thermoature in and got 90 degrees:smokin: :smokin: no typo 90. As it's VERY cold uphere in NNY I had wrapped the SR in that silvery insulation used on AC ducts and maintained 80 degrees in there and I just let it run that way(this unit is the basement where it's approx. 65) of course it's warmer now. I never give it another thought until now.
Do you think I killed my bacteria in the SR ??@ those temps? I just removed the insulation and when it cools down I'll reseed w/NBC# 9.
The flow rate is set @ 1d/sec. and as a reminder my tank is a FOWLR with VERY nitrates 150+, but was much, much higher due to...........well I'm not going there.... your help as always is much appreciated.
Dick
Temperature in SR
Help....:strooper:
dj I need your input on a few questions. First to make a longgggggggg story short, as you know I got my DJDenitrator to cycle running out of a 5 g bucket and now it's on my tank. I'm currently discharging in to a bucket, not the tank, good thing as the SR is pumping out VERY high nitirite. About 10 days ago I seeded it with NBC#9 but still no go.
This am I removed the vent valve (have been getting "some gas", but not like before,anyhow, I stuck a thermoature in and got 90 degrees:smokin: :smokin: no typo 90. As it's VERY cold uphere in NNY I had wrapped the SR in that silvery insulation used on AC ducts and maintained 80 degrees in there and I just let it run that way(this unit is the basement where it's approx. 65) of course it's warmer now. I never give it another thought until now.
Do you think I killed my bacteria in the SR ??@ those temps? I just removed the insulation and when it cools down I'll reseed w/NBC# 9.
The flow rate is set @ 1d/sec. and as a reminder my tank is a FOWLR with VERY nitrates 150+, but was much, much higher due to...........well I'm not going there.... your help as always is much appreciated.
Dick
djfrankie
In Memoriam
Re: Temperature in SR
Re: Temperature in SR
I highly doubt those temperatures have caused any die off. This bacteria genus is thermophilic, meaning it grows better in warmer temperatures.
Based on some studies T. denitrificans grow faster at 111.2 F (44 Celsius). Other studies indicate optimum temperatures range from 82.4 â€"œ 89.6 F (28-32 Celsius).
One article describes T. denitrificans naturally living in Yellowstone where the water is relatively hot.
Bottom line is these bacteria love warmer temperatures and the 90 degrees F you are reporting would not have caused any damage.
If I’m understanding you correctly you had already cycled the SR in the 5 gallon bucket and were getting zero reading out of the effluent then you added some more NBC#9 ?? before you brought it inline with your tank?
Let me know,
djfrankie
Re: Temperature in SR
I highly doubt those temperatures have caused any die off. This bacteria genus is thermophilic, meaning it grows better in warmer temperatures.
Based on some studies T. denitrificans grow faster at 111.2 F (44 Celsius). Other studies indicate optimum temperatures range from 82.4 â€"œ 89.6 F (28-32 Celsius).
One article describes T. denitrificans naturally living in Yellowstone where the water is relatively hot.
Bottom line is these bacteria love warmer temperatures and the 90 degrees F you are reporting would not have caused any damage.
If I’m understanding you correctly you had already cycled the SR in the 5 gallon bucket and were getting zero reading out of the effluent then you added some more NBC#9 ?? before you brought it inline with your tank?
Let me know,
djfrankie
Thanks, djfrankie! I'm so happy I finally don't have to hold back on food and despite frequent wc the nitrates slowly kept climbing. 2 months ago I was thinking I'd have to get rid of most of my fish, if I ever wanted to lower the nitrates permanently!
I just finished putting everything back together after shoveling out quite a bit of the sulfur.
Have set it back to 3 d/s and will monitor output to get it dialed in to my tank's needs (I hope).
I had a lot of sulfur in the unit, and since the nitrates came down very fast once it was cycled, I have left only about a tenth of the sulfur in, so I can run it on a few drops per second, instead of fully open.
I'm hoping that will slow down the lowering of pH (despite the ARM) and Alk, which were pretty severe in my case.
Even though I topped off with kalkwasser and added baking soda, the numbers just kept dropping.
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