marcrunner
New member
I have seen these in this hobby for a while now, just wondering how well they work? By design I like the Aqua Medic units. Anyone have any experience with these units?
How many are using Nitrate Reductors?
- Thread starter marcrunner
- Start date
nureefer2008
In Memoriam
I am interested in getting one myself but haven't done much research yet. Let me know what you find out.
triggerfreak
Active member
Following along on this one two.The aquamedic ones are expensive.Any other brands out there and where to buy at.
mattsilvester
Team RC
Just as a FYI reply - well, actually my opinion FYI reply..... but anyway..... every discussion needs a bit of balance, so I'll be devils advocate here.
It is my opinion that nitrate is an excellent indicator of system health, system capacity, and an excellent monitor as to how effective yoru routine maintenance is. As a by note - for a FO tank, nitrate in itself is not all that harmful to the fish either.
High, unmanageable nitrate is a symptom of a greater problem - that is that your system is biologically overloaded. Assuming a tpyical skimmer / sump / refugium arrangement - where neither is disproportionately large (i.e. sump&refugium not making up any more of 1/3 the system volume), it should be possible to maintain nitrate an an acceptable level (something less than 50pp....much closer to 20ppm ideally) by implementing some basic NNR methods, and frequent water changes.
If, inspite of these measures, your are not able to manage nitrate, then it is indicative of a larger problem, which, as fish grow, is only going to get worse. Hence, by adding a denitrator, in my opinion, you are not addressing the problem, but are merely glossing over it.
The scenario might pan out something like this...... you have some concerns abotu high nitrate readings - consitently above 50ppm - you read about dentrators, economically they seem a sound investment, so you install one - and within a short period of time, nitrates are zero, and everything looks great. To be prudent, you continue to change 20% of water monthly, inspite of there seemingly being no need for it...... 12 months later, it strikes you that your fish are not quite so vibrant as pictures you see.... they don't seem to grow so well.... your having problems keeping cleanup crews alive..... your starting to get algae problems.... that srot of thing, and you wonder why???
The simple reason is that before you added the denitrator, you were changing 20% of water per month - yet that was not enough to counter the increasing nitrate (and other waste build up that we do not measure for). Since installing your denitrator, you are changing the same amount of water (maybe even less), and the fish have only gotten bigger and whilst nitrate is not a problem anymore (and it never realyl was in the first palce) all the other elements of water quality have continued to go down hill - the same amount of nitrifying action has gone on, depeting pH & buffers, other by-products have continued to accumulate.... all the while, while you think your qaulity has been great, it has in reality continued to slip - and all that goodness you would have put in with water changes and all those nasties you would have pulled out have gone unchecked. Had you not installed the dentrator, you would have been alarmed to wathc your nitrate level increase from 50>60>70>...100ppm - and you would have taken measures to combat that...... but since you no longer have that barometer by which to gauge your system, you realyl have no idea how well it is doing......
Anyway - that is why I do not like the idea of denitrators. I think, for a stable healthy FO tank we really only need to test for 3 things.... 1. Nitrate, 2. pH, 3. Alkalinity (and of course temp & s.g.)> but generally, if your nitrate is low, then you either have a low stocked system, a well balanced system, or do alot of maintenance - which means that pH and Alkalinity are in check also.
Dentrators do one thing, and one thing only - tackle nitrate. NNR methods do more - they multitask as it were, and water changes remain the most important and effective thing we can do on our systems. Glossing over the probelm will give you short terms benefits, but in the long term, I truthfully fail to see how they are of benefit.
In reef tanks its different > when you are trying to get rid of the last few 2 or 3 ppm.... which is only a little polishing really.
HTH
Matt
It is my opinion that nitrate is an excellent indicator of system health, system capacity, and an excellent monitor as to how effective yoru routine maintenance is. As a by note - for a FO tank, nitrate in itself is not all that harmful to the fish either.
High, unmanageable nitrate is a symptom of a greater problem - that is that your system is biologically overloaded. Assuming a tpyical skimmer / sump / refugium arrangement - where neither is disproportionately large (i.e. sump&refugium not making up any more of 1/3 the system volume), it should be possible to maintain nitrate an an acceptable level (something less than 50pp....much closer to 20ppm ideally) by implementing some basic NNR methods, and frequent water changes.
If, inspite of these measures, your are not able to manage nitrate, then it is indicative of a larger problem, which, as fish grow, is only going to get worse. Hence, by adding a denitrator, in my opinion, you are not addressing the problem, but are merely glossing over it.
The scenario might pan out something like this...... you have some concerns abotu high nitrate readings - consitently above 50ppm - you read about dentrators, economically they seem a sound investment, so you install one - and within a short period of time, nitrates are zero, and everything looks great. To be prudent, you continue to change 20% of water monthly, inspite of there seemingly being no need for it...... 12 months later, it strikes you that your fish are not quite so vibrant as pictures you see.... they don't seem to grow so well.... your having problems keeping cleanup crews alive..... your starting to get algae problems.... that srot of thing, and you wonder why???
The simple reason is that before you added the denitrator, you were changing 20% of water per month - yet that was not enough to counter the increasing nitrate (and other waste build up that we do not measure for). Since installing your denitrator, you are changing the same amount of water (maybe even less), and the fish have only gotten bigger and whilst nitrate is not a problem anymore (and it never realyl was in the first palce) all the other elements of water quality have continued to go down hill - the same amount of nitrifying action has gone on, depeting pH & buffers, other by-products have continued to accumulate.... all the while, while you think your qaulity has been great, it has in reality continued to slip - and all that goodness you would have put in with water changes and all those nasties you would have pulled out have gone unchecked. Had you not installed the dentrator, you would have been alarmed to wathc your nitrate level increase from 50>60>70>...100ppm - and you would have taken measures to combat that...... but since you no longer have that barometer by which to gauge your system, you realyl have no idea how well it is doing......
Anyway - that is why I do not like the idea of denitrators. I think, for a stable healthy FO tank we really only need to test for 3 things.... 1. Nitrate, 2. pH, 3. Alkalinity (and of course temp & s.g.)> but generally, if your nitrate is low, then you either have a low stocked system, a well balanced system, or do alot of maintenance - which means that pH and Alkalinity are in check also.
Dentrators do one thing, and one thing only - tackle nitrate. NNR methods do more - they multitask as it were, and water changes remain the most important and effective thing we can do on our systems. Glossing over the probelm will give you short terms benefits, but in the long term, I truthfully fail to see how they are of benefit.
In reef tanks its different > when you are trying to get rid of the last few 2 or 3 ppm.... which is only a little polishing really.
HTH
Matt
I don't use a nitrate reductor, never tried it. In my heavier bioload tanks, I usually combine protein skimmer (takes it out before it becomes nitrate), refugium with macroalgae (exports nutrients after nitrates formed) and regular water changes and pruning out excess macro growth, usually every 2-4 weeks (gets the rest). The refugium also handles phosphates...
This combination usually works just fine for me, without a ton of work.
This combination usually works just fine for me, without a ton of work.
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