Natureef denitrator instructions

Dave, hows has this method been working out for you? Looking for easy way to drop nitrates.

My phosphates I can keep pretty low. .02 -.1 (hanna), but my nitrates are creepy up to 10ppm. Would like little lower.

I put a bio-pellet reactor on with about a 1/4 dose of pellets, im noticing little cyano on my cheato in my sump, and im guessing its the new bacteria growth. Its been running about 5 weeks now. Trying this method, buy I dont like seeing cyano.
 
Biggar said:
Dave, hows has this method been working out for you? Looking for easy way to drop nitrates.

My phosphates I can keep pretty low. .02 -.1 (hanna), but my nitrates are creepy up to 10ppm. Would like little lower.

I put a bio-pellet reactor on with about a 1/4 dose of pellets, im noticing little cyano on my cheato in my sump, and im guessing its the new bacteria growth. Its been running about 5 weeks now. Trying this method, buy I dont like seeing cyano.
Click to expand...

Hey Mike,
Try putting the output of your biopellets so it is near the intake of your skimmer or even put a T-pipe on your intake so it gets all of it. The biopellets put excess bacteria (nutrients) into the system, you should be able to skim out a lot of it. When I cycle my denitrator, I put the output right above the intake of my skimmer so it chews up some of the excess protein(bacteria) exiting the chamber.

The Natureef product works well but is far from perfect. Runs on bacteria and they can be fussy at times. Right now I'm cycling the reactor once a day. One cycle removes nitrates from about 12gal of water. At it's best I had it cycling 3 times a day. Still, a 12gal water change per day isnt bad. ;) You have to feed the reactor with nitragone to keep it going - gal jug is $40 and lasts me about 3 months. I'd say it is the most expensive way to remove nitrates.
 
DRThompson said:
Hey Mike,
Try putting the output of your biopellets so it is near the intake of your skimmer or even put a T-pipe on your intake so it gets all of it. The biopellets put excess bacteria (nutrients) into the system, you should be able to skim out a lot of it. When I cycle my denitrator, I put the output right above the intake of my skimmer so it chews up some of the excess protein(bacteria) exiting the chamber.

The Natureef product works well but is far from perfect. Runs on bacteria and they can be fussy at times. Right now I'm cycling the reactor once a day. One cycle removes nitrates from about 12gal of water. At it's best I had it cycling 3 times a day. Still, a 12gal water change per day isnt bad. ;) You have to feed the reactor with nitragone to keep it going - gal jug is $40 and lasts me about 3 months. I'd say it is the most expensive way to remove nitrates.
Click to expand...

You know what I did recently, I used to have the out put of the bio pellet reactor going into skimmer section. I now have tie wrapped the line to go more into the skimmer intake. Maybe that was the problem. Hope the new bacteria can kung fu the cyano to death eventually

Ill keep the pellets going and just see what it goes for now. Nitragone is bit pricey.

Thanks
 
Now dosing straight methanol

Now dosing straight methanol

Thought I would post an update on the denitrator. I've been running it for over 2 years now. The first year I had it cycling 3 times a day but was running thru a LOT of nitragone and phosphagone so I decided to drop it back to once a day. In december the denitrator stopped functioning and I ended up rebuilding the baffles to allow better water flow thru the baffles in the chamber. Now the denitrator is fully functioning again and chews thru nitrates in 10-12 hours.

I was told that the nitragone contains methanol but never new the concentration. I looked up the freezing points of different concentrations of methanol and found that 20% methanol freezes at 0 degrees F.

methanolfreezingpoints_zpsd2bf09c2.png


So I set my freezer to 0 and put in 20ml of nitragone. It did NOT freeze, then added 1ml of water and 10 minutes later it froze. That tells me the concentration is close to 20% methanol. I ordered pure 100% methanol from ebay; received it yesterday in the mail.
 
methanol_zps122ab3c1.jpg


My apex doses 16ml of nitragone per cycle. Using 20% as a guide that would be 3.2ml of pure methanol; I decided to be cautious and started with 2ml. Started a cycle last night at 10pm with 2ml of methanol. When I checked the water 12 hours later at 10am this morning there were 0 nitrates (salifert test kit).
 
So now can you post up the sweet spot times where the nitrite was produced or text me forget what time you said....just wondering per our conversation if it could be increased ml and would lower cycle time and keep it below that toxic level in the safe range as my gallon volume has a greater bufferage range...
 
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Methanol dosing continued:

I continued to dose 2ml of methanol and followed each cycle to endpoint today.(testing nitrates and nitrites). I was able to cycle the denitrator at 6pm, and again at 12am. The biodenitrator is now cycling every 6 hours using only 2ml of methanol and nothing else. I'm still testing every few hours to confirm the endpoint and dosing the methanol manually. I've noticed a spike of nitrite at about 2-2.5 hours after the methanol dose. I believe this is the peek of the reaction. I've also tested the phosphates at the end of each cycle and they read 0 (hannah); however, the phosphates in my tank are low 0.05 so i'm not sure that is significant.

My plan is to keep monitoring it for the next couple of days before I make the permanent switch to methanol.
 
So far sounds sweet now I could put mine back on line with the new setup.....cost was my only hold up with the larger system....if we can put it in that range wow that would be awesome.....

So at 20% your at 6 hours but I bet there will be an adjustment for the bio and this time would actually be at about 4.5 hours ....that would be better than the original nitragone wouldn't it .....your best before the crash weren't you cycling 4 times daily

I have long said this was the best option on the market for nitrates and phosphates - the monthly cost factor
 
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Hey Steve,
Sent you a PM, LMK if you want more info.

To bring you up to date:
I still dose pure methanol manually.
I cycle the denitrator every 8 hours.
My nitrates are around 2.5-5mg/l on Salifert
I feed my 30 fish twice daily; each feeding includes 4 cubes of frozen food (varies)
I feed daily 1/3 of a 10"x10" sheet of nori that I buy from the asian market

I'm still trying to figure out the lowest possible dose to complete a cycle. Technically, the amount of methanol needed is directly proportional to the amount of nitrate I need to remove. Currently I'm at 1.5ml of 100% methanol per cycle and my nitrate is 2.5-5mg/l at the start of the cycle for a 15gal chamber.

I'm not wild about handling 100% methanol. For now the 100% methanol is still in my frig (dont tell my wife) Even in the frig the methanol fumes are still flammable :( Eventually I'll dilute the methanol to make it safer and use my drews dosers to automate the dosing. I've read that a methanol/water solutions less than 70% are no longer flammable. I'll probably dilute it to 50% to make it easy.

I still cant figure out the concentration of Strontium nitrate in the phosphagone. I've order some strontium nitrate powder and will experiment more when it comes in.
 
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Hey Dave….thanks for the pm and I responded. I definitely would like more info. Im interested in what is involved with the "cycle".
 
MrX66699 and I will be experimenting with his system (700gal water volume). He's making a custom chamber that holds about 25gal. We will be cycling his denitrator chamber with just methanol.

My readings and experience tell me that you need to cycle at least 10% of your water volume per day for the denitrator to be effective. For MRX we will have to get the 25gal chamber to cycle at least 3-4 times per day to bring his nitrates down. I'll either post a link here or we will just document the experiment using this thread.
 
Here's a link to my pics

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://s1072.photobucket.com/user/pharmd99/embed/slideshow/natureef%20denitrator"></iframe>

Will get MRX to post pics of his chamber build.
 
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