Nitrates !!!!!!!

fwiw, i believe i read alot of people that would dose vodka and sugar, because of the huge increase in bacteria(all kinds) alot of people especially in europe began to get bacterial infections with there sps.

so keep that in mind and take it slow for sure. i really wouldnt dose the 2 unless you really needed it. not if your nitrates are less then 5.
 
My Nitrates are over 5......for sure.........If I do decide to try this I think I will dose the inflo going into my make shift de-nitrifyer.
 
My sulfur reactor already kicked in. less than 25 ppm coming out of the outflow in 3 days. I love it and think I will call it my automatic water changer :-)

My tanks readings are over 80 ppm as I type.

I think sugar is great for cooking and vodka is great for the Holidays. I love automated stuff and daily dosing to me is a no no.

By the way prior to installing the sulfur reactor I considered how many water changes it would have taken to bring nitrates down by mixing 4 ml of cleanly made water with 1 ml of tank water and my nitrate results were almost the same. So a complete water change would have done it, but two reasons why I didn't do it:

My tank's habitants are mainly tangs and they are against large water changes. My purple tang is almost 10 years, blue tang @ 6 and yellow tang over 4.

Second reason is money. I was cheaper to make the sulfur reactor since I had most parts laying around.

The reason why my nitrates skyrocketed was from a non-working deep sand bed in the sump area. It was over 3 years old and when removed my phosphates immediately went down. I tried to find the culprit behind these problems by doing lots of water changes and even trying AZ-NO3. So no more DSB for me. It is much easier to keep my tank clean now.

djfrankie
 
Last edited:
See this is where it gets crazy.......and the confusion starts lol.....

SO what is the general consensus? NO DSB?

I have a deep sand bed in my tank......should I plan on removing it? I have seems soo many beautiful tanks with DSB and SPS, LPS, Clams, you name it.......

I have also seen bare bottoms with the same things.....I like a sand bed because it seems more natural.....

In any case.....even if a sand bed is putting out some nitrates, if you have nitrate eating bacteria it should balance out.....am i right in that thinking?
 
I've got a shallow sand bed, and I've been slowly siphoning out the sand from it to make it as shallow as possible, only some sand will remain because the ball and chain (girlfriend) likes the sand, and doesn't like the idea of the poor conch having to drag himself around on glass, versus dragging himself around on a "natural" sandbed ::shrug::

The sand bed will put out some nitrates, but in a DSB, they can get clogged up, causing "old tank syndrome" where it leaks out phosphates and ammonia. Funny the discussion of Old Tank Syndrome and New Tank Syndrome in the same thread.

The best and most natural denitration system I have heard of yet is the Remote Deep Sand Bed in a bucket. This is used to naturally use denitrating bacteria to break down the nitrate in the tank, be easy enough to simply repair/replace, and be of relatively no maintenence. Check either the lighting/equip forum or the advanced topic forum.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11492745#post11492745 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by newreefbishop
In any case.....even if a sand bed is putting out some nitrates, if you have nitrate eating bacteria it should balance out.....am i right in that thinking?
Click to expand...

Makes sense, but why not eliminate the source to begin with, assuming this is the source. Just hope this doesn't turn into another DSB or bare bottom discussion :-)

The remote DSB has been beaten to death already in 1000 other threads here in RC and many other forums I frequent. The problem is simple, when do you know your sand bed has stopped functioning??? and what is the saturation point???

You don't.

True, sand it's much easier removed when placed in a refugium or separate container (RDSB) since it can be easily changed out.

I'm planning on adding a small maybe 1 inch sand bottom to my tank for bare aesthetics purpose and it will be vacuumed regularly.
 
I thought about that......but since tank is new I dont think its a case of old tank syndrome. I like both deep sand and shallow, but i believe this setup will last at least untill my next build before nitrates become a big factor. I have begun dosing my denitrifyer, and will post results as I get them. I will be testing every other day.
 
I have a question about SB not doing their jobs any more. If you have lets say sand sifting starfish and sand sifting gobies and what ever other critters, does that not keep the bed fresh or atleast working. I mean is the theory not that since critters keep the sand from being still and stale, it doesnt build up nitrates and amonia, just asking, just throwing it out there??
 
Not sure about that one, as you would need something that eats the waste the bacteria put out, or the bacteria themselves......
 
nitrate

nitrate

hello,

i bought PhosBan and the ViaAqua Poly-Reactor (Multi-Media Reactor, at marine depot online. i put the whole phosban media pluse Nitrate remover media. And would you know it helped reduce my phosphate and Nitrate. the Viaaqua reactor come with a pump that gives it just thr right flow. was easy to assemble. i installed it last week and this week i have no traces of nitrate all for less then $50.
 
Right now I have Dual Phosban reactors daisy chained both filled with Nitrate Sponge (kent marine), flow is turned down to roughly 5-6 drops per second, in between the reactors there is a 1 foot tube....based one what I have been reading within 2-3 weeks there will be a miny cycle, to speed that process I have been dosin vodka directly into the reactors, and so far so good...tomorrow is the dirst day I will officially test to see where we are at. I will test tank water, as well as water flowing out of the reactors....

Also I will post a couple pics of my setup....
 
Hey Jewfish can you give me a link to where in Marine Depot you found everything you got, because that seems like a great deal. I want to take a look into it for that kinda of price.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11472614#post11472614 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by djfrankie
The plans will be posted in the DIY section if you really need too. There's really no science behind it is just pvc from HD. Get the materials we could make one in about an hour :-)

djfrankie
Click to expand...

DJFRANKIE,

Do you have plans that you can share with us?

I'm really interested in them as I was planning on purchasing one of those units for my new 210-g.

Good Luck and Have Fun!!!;
:thumbsup:
 
Hey szhttm,

I'll draw something up with parts list so you have an idea. I also have some pics in my gallery. I bought the parts for another from HD since I was going to make Cubano2480 one this weekend, but he ended up gettting some acrylic and will make his out of acrylic instead.

I will post the link here as well. Don't want to take over this thread since it is not mine.

djfrankie
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

F
Starting tank again
Replies
6
Views
466
Dr. Reef
Dr. Reef
K
Help: SPS peeling strangely.
Replies
5
Views
479
griss
griss
J
Calcium very elevated
Replies
3
Views
757
jcarlilesiu
J
D
Nitrates going down in a new tank without WC?
Replies
4
Views
719
DiscoHobbit
D
Formulator
8 year old tank with 2.0 PO4 and zero Nitrate
Replies
7
Views
953
Scotty333!!!
S
Back
Top