Donovan's Nitrate Destroyer

[lance1337]

Check out this thread and I have shut this down and made double the size in width and I have double the growth but nitrates are still high due to heavy bio load..


https://www.manhattanreefs.com/foru...5-diy-algae-scrubber-simple-cheap-design.html

How big is your screen?
You growing front and back?

I have a heavy bio load 265, running (2) 18x12 screens growing front and back and my nitrates are always 0 and I heavily feed my fish.

I honestly don't think this sulfur denitrator will do any better, but maybe it will who knows. I've tried them in the past and it couldn't keep up with my heavy bio load tank.

 

[maxxII]

Lance,
If you're having success with your ATS, on your system, that's great.
However, I'd appreciate it if you'd stop trying to turn this into an ATS thread.

You're welcome to start your own ATS thread though and discuss things there.


Thanks.

 

[djbon]

How big is your screen?
You growing front and back?

I have a heavy bio load 265, running (2) 18x12 screens growing front and back and my nitrates are always 0 and I heavily feed my fish.

I honestly don't think this sulfur denitrator will do any better, but maybe it will who knows. I've tried them in the past and it couldn't keep up with my heavy bio load tank.

If you are referring to my denitrator, it is not a sulfur denitrator.

 

[djbon]

Another nitrate destroyer for LFS. First unit is now matured (LPS coral tanks). This new unit is for his mixed frag tank.

 

[jml1149]

I used combination of Biozyme formula 50 (cheap) with BioDigest to start the tower.

I can only get BioDigest, would you recommend one amp of the BioDigest daily or should I spread it out farther than that? And then a regular vinegar schedule?

 

[djbon]

I can only get BioDigest, would you recommend one amp of the BioDigest daily or should I spread it out farther than that? And then a regular vinegar schedule?

I seeded the reactor with biodigest, one ampule every other day for a week. These reactors (2 units) are for a LFS, 2500 liter and 1500liter total water respectively. It start reducing nitrate on 13th day. For carbon dosing, it depends on current no3 level and total water volume. What is the reactor size?

 

[jml1149]

Thanks for the response! It's a 120g tank and the nitrate is > 40ppm. I plan on using 2 1/2 foot sections of 3" pvc as in your original post. Everything should be here today and a quick trip to HD and I will be underway. I think the change you made to just using the elbows is pretty sleek. Thanks again!

 

[djbon]

For 3" pipe 120g water volume, 6 - 8ml vodka is adequate. If using vinegar 20 - 25ml is recommended, but i'm worry about ph drop in the reactor when using vinegar. If you owned a dosing pump with unused channel, auto dosing is much better. Split the dosage into several time per day will bring down no3 way faster.

 

[jml1149]

Great thanks! Yep I have a BRS dosed and Apex slot ready to go. Is it possible nitrates > 40ppm are to high to start the reactor?

 

[djbon]

Mine was at 80ppm before, no problem. Keep an eye on algae, stripping no3 is much faster than po4. I would suggest running gfo at the same time. My other reactors for a LFS are even higher. 1st drop of tetra no3 test kit straight away dark red.

 

[gregkn73]

Let's report my attempt. After 2 weeks running the denitrator, I didn't notice anything yet, something i expected , since I didn't dose bacteria. My Donovan denitrator ,because of height restrictions, consist of 4 towers, first one(water entrance) with eheim mech in a net and sera siporax, 2+3 with seachem matrix big, 4 seachem denitrator from my previous diy reactor. Run it 2 days in a bucket so the denitrator will seed the rest of the media with bacteria. I supplying it with water from a small filter , with a sponge, currently 7lt/h , but I am thinking I should put inside the filter ,aquarium wool to keep media in denitrator as clean as possible. Dosing just 1ml diy NOPOX in denitrator, since I am skimerless . Starting pointNO3: 2.5ppm salifert, Po4 5ppb hanna736. Same values as of today, I hope in 2 more weeks I can see some measurable results!

PS Donovan ,how do you filter the water , supplying your denitrator?

 

[djbon]

It must be seeded to speed up colonisation. My lfs seeded his with biodigest and mb7. 2 weeks with good result. 1ml carbon @ nopox is too little, 5 - 7 ml is just right. If you don't have skimmer, redirect the effluent into a filter socks. Socks will catch excess bacteria, making it covered with slime.

My reactor water supply is pumped directly from the sump, prefiltered overflow. Its a single chamber sump.

 

[djbon]

Your carbon dosing inlet seems to be at the last chamber @ outlet. Is it correct?. Should be at the first inlet chamber.

 

[gregkn73]

Your carbon dosing inlet seems to be at the last chamber @ outlet. Is it correct?. Should be at the first inlet chamber.

It is on the first, it can't be seen at the photos. What you are seeing is the first smaller in diameter water outlet. I wanted it bigger, so the denitrator could handle higher water flow if I wanted and I made the bigger lower one I use.

It must be seeded to speed up colonisation. My lfs seeded his with biodigest and mb7. 2 weeks with good result. 1ml carbon @ nopox is too little, 5 - 7 ml is just right. If you don't have skimmer, redirect the effluent into a filter socks. Socks will catch excess bacteria, making it covered with slime.

My reactor water supply is pumped directly from the sump, prefiltered overflow. Its a single chamber sump.

Since I am skimmerless ,I probably have higher carbon % in my water comparing with skimmed systems, also I had already low no3values. For those reasons I decided the low carbon dose. I have a slightly increase in cyano, that already had, so I might even stop dosing carbon . One of the reasons I want to increase denitrification in my system, is to benefit from the excess bacterioplankton . So I don't intend to use any socks, just will be careful with carbon dosing, to avoid any bacteria Blum and oxygen depletion as result.

 

[djbon]

Ok. Noted. At 2.5ppm no3 that is quite good level to maintain for corals. Bacteria plankton is one of the benefits i get with this reactor. First light every morning is a heavy breakfast for my corals.

 

[djbon]

Hi greg,

You can skip carbon dosing as your no3 level is just nice for corals consumption. It will be a bit longer for you to see result if you don't seed bacteria, but it will do its job once bacteria builds up in the chamber. I tried overdosing my reactor for a week (3 x 5ml in a day, instead of regular 3ml), bacteria bloom almost clogged the reactor. No worries, just stop dosing for a few days it will unclogged by itself.

I was surprised you had cyno, did you dose carbon directly in your display before?.

I saw bags of stones/rubble in your sump. If i were you, i will remove these bags as they are good at producing nitrate.

 

[gregkn73]

Hi greg,

You can skip carbon dosing as your no3 level is just nice for corals consumption. It will be a bit longer for you to see result if you don't seed bacteria, but it will do its job once bacteria builds up in the chamber. I tried overdosing my reactor for a week (3 x 5ml in a day, instead of regular 3ml), bacteria bloom almost clogged the reactor. No worries, just stop dosing for a few days it will unclogged by itself.

I was surprised you had cyno, did you dose carbon directly in your display before?.

I saw bags of stones/rubble in your sump. If i were you, i will remove these bags as they are good at producing nitrate.

The stones in the picture are the excess of pumice I had in my previous diy reactor. 7lt in there, used 2.5lt in the new denitrator and I didn't want to loose any bacteria colonised them. I place them in bugs ,so I can easily now clean them.

I have cyano in my tank for a long time now, it started when I accidentally overdosed Fe! I am add ing NOPOX in the denitrator but obviously there are not enough bacteria in there, to consume it!I hope that the increase of useful bacteria population in your denitrator, will compete with cyano for whatever "sources" and finally eliminated it.

I had also in the past dosed carbon accidentally, and except a slight bacteria Bloom without ill effect, I noticed a increased period from every 3 to every 6 days ,needed to clean the glass from film algae,=reduced PO4 ,which was a good thing. Also now diy NOPOX dosing, has the same result in film algae on the glass, except the light increase of cyano I mention earlier , so considering it as a positive result! If in the near future won't see any cyano decrease, I might consider stop carbon dosing or better add some bacteria , in the denitrator.

 

[djbon]

Ok. I saw a very good result when seeding mb7 bacteria. Cleaner water and less slime/algae film on glass. My friend frag tanks are super clean with crystal clear water allowing more light penetration. I am building another 4 reactors for a small museum with 3 display tanks roughly 1000G each and another one for a friend of my lfs buddy.

 

[jml1149]

Will get it wet tonight, thanks for the help!

 

[djbon]

:bigeyes: Wow. Very well built jml1149