My new hatchery (56k beware)
- Thread starter CaptiveMarine
- Start date
JHardman
Premium Member
Do a search for posts from Dman on nitrate filters. What I am refering to is denitrators. They use a slow, long flow to create a low or near zero O2 environment and then places the water into an area with lots of bio filtration which allows for nitrate to be converted to nitrogen.
Think about how nice it will be when you can maintain several hundred gallons of water that has a massive amount of life that is being fed a ton and not have to change the water to remove nitrates.
jnowell
New member
I've read all those threads, and even downloaded some old waste water documents from the 70's (haven't spent that much time at the library since college). I love the idea of the denitrating coil, basically a LONG coil of small diameter tubing (.170" is what I'm using) kinda like RO tubing or Ice maker type stuff, kinda rigid and already in a coil for you. Mine works off of a syphon, I'll have to find my notes, but I think it only runs about 8 mil through 100 feet of tubing every 30 minutes. I drain it into the skimmer portion of my sump so it can be re-oxygenated before returning to the display.
It's still a little early to tell, but it is dropping the nitrates down. My nitrates rise when I only do 10% changes, so periodically I do a 30% change to keep them in check. All I'm really trying to do is eliminate the 30% change, so far so good. It's only been running for one month, with my regular 10% changes...and the nitrates haven't creeped above 20, which they normally would have by now. I plan to start another thread on this some day, but want to give it some more time to make sure I'm seeing a benefit first, and I want to see if it gets clogged, this seems to be the main problem with coil denitrators.
Jason
It's still a little early to tell, but it is dropping the nitrates down. My nitrates rise when I only do 10% changes, so periodically I do a 30% change to keep them in check. All I'm really trying to do is eliminate the 30% change, so far so good. It's only been running for one month, with my regular 10% changes...and the nitrates haven't creeped above 20, which they normally would have by now. I plan to start another thread on this some day, but want to give it some more time to make sure I'm seeing a benefit first, and I want to see if it gets clogged, this seems to be the main problem with coil denitrators.
Jason
jnowell
New member
Right you are rsman, my calculated "guess" was 8.5 mil every 30 SECONDS...not minutes. That was suposed to be max flow, I started it with about 10 mil every 3 minutes, and haven't bumped it up yet. I understand that you need to raise the flow rate very slowly over a long period of time.
It's funny, I read up on all this, and did all my math about a month ago, already none of it makes sense to me anymore. i'm not even completely sure these new numbers are really what I decided on.
Regardless, the nitrates in my tank are about 13-15ppm and are undetectable coming out of the coil. I turned up the flow ever so slightly just now, and will check it again tomorrow. Thanks for all the help in the other thread rsman! It may not be perfect, but mine is working somewhat.
Jason
It's funny, I read up on all this, and did all my math about a month ago, already none of it makes sense to me anymore. i'm not even completely sure these new numbers are really what I decided on.
Regardless, the nitrates in my tank are about 13-15ppm and are undetectable coming out of the coil. I turned up the flow ever so slightly just now, and will check it again tomorrow. Thanks for all the help in the other thread rsman! It may not be perfect, but mine is working somewhat.
Jason
rsman
New member
jnowell:
do you have a bio chamber on that coil ? what are the nitrite readings out of the coil? that still seems a little slow but it will depend on your setup and age of the denitrator coils.
slevesque: RDSB
while its a good thread, and its a nice thing for reefs it just isnt going to be economical for a fish breeder to use a sand bucket, there are a couple of good threads on it in here also ?somewhere?
what it boils down to is it just cant keep up, VS a much smaller and only slightly more $ coil denitrator. and the stability long term is questionable(depending on which expert you listen to
), though again this might be more of a problem for breeders than a reef tank.
do you have a bio chamber on that coil ? what are the nitrite readings out of the coil? that still seems a little slow but it will depend on your setup and age of the denitrator coils.
slevesque: RDSB
while its a good thread, and its a nice thing for reefs it just isnt going to be economical for a fish breeder to use a sand bucket, there are a couple of good threads on it in here also ?somewhere?
what it boils down to is it just cant keep up, VS a much smaller and only slightly more $ coil denitrator. and the stability long term is questionable(depending on which expert you listen to
), though again this might be more of a problem for breeders than a reef tank.
Dman
New member
JHardman, thanks all the same but the guy you want to talk to regarding the coils is rsman, I've built three of them so far and all of them have been stunning failures. There is a guy building them, look for dragonslayer in the DIY forum.
rsman, I know, I know, but I really haven't had the time.
asnatlas
New member
Are you sure its dragonslayer ?? When I look him up he joined back on 04/16/2005 but has never posted
MalawianDude
New member
Just had to say most impressive. I breed african cichlids, similiar setups without all the extra filteration.
Am just getting into breeding a few SW species. Can't wait to see some pics on the whole thing running.
Am just getting into breeding a few SW species. Can't wait to see some pics on the whole thing running.
MalawianDude
New member
Bah Angels! LOL
Am taggin this thread now can't wait to see all done.
Am taggin this thread now can't wait to see all done.
CaptiveMarine
Premium Member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6806282#post6806282 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Luis A M
Actually some successful clown breeders were former FW angelfish breeders using basically the same set-up
Actually I used to bred angels and discus.
Sorry I haven't got more done this week. I've had a couple of tank installs to do and I just got finished recording a radio commercial. Now it's time to get back to work.
CaptiveMarine
Premium Member
Sorry, I've been kind of busy and haven't got to finish it yet. I'm working on setting up some new tanks for customers and I have to work on them first.
I am getting to work on a new tank that I've not had the chance to work with yet. I'm starting work on a Oceanic "Half Circle" 144 gallon tank for a customer. It looks like this is going to be a really nice project. A nice size tank, a new shape, and no budget, just get what I want.
CaptiveMarine
Premium Member
I know everyone thought I had forgot about this thread, but I haven't. It is now built and I'm leak testing it now. I have the bio filters cycling in another system and I will transfer them over to this system the first of the week.
One of the reasons I started this thread was to get feedback from the other members about the setup so I could make any changes I needed to make before everything was set up, and I made a lot of them. The main thing I did was split the system up into three seperate systems. One for the brood stock, one for larvae, and one for growout. What I have running now is the brood stock system. It now consists of twelve 20 gallon tanks and twelve 15 gallon tanks, and three 29 gallon tanks. This should be more than enough for me.
I should have the other systems ready in the next couple of weeks. Now that I've finished this one I've got a lot better idea of how everything goes together. The larvae tanks will consist of a series of 10 and 15 gallon tanks. The grow out system has six 29 gallon tanks, three thirty gallon tanks, and two 100 gallon tanks. There is also room at the end of this row to add more is I need it.
Now the really good new, my first fish will be here Wednesday. I've got three pair of Akindynos, two pair of Allardi, two pair of Clarks, and a pair of Orange Peel Pseudochromis (Pseudochromis tonozukai).
I'll post some pictures as soon as I get another camera. Someone decided they needed mine more than I did and lifted it.
HartfordWhalers
New member
Oh SNAP
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