Phosban reactors as nitrate reactors?

[dela]

I was thinking of using a couple of old phosban reactors I've got laying around and putting them to good use as nitrate reactors.

I was thinking of putting two series and having a long feed water tube that coils around the first reactor. The first one would have carbon or something similar to try and use up the oxygen, the second would have either nitrate reactor media or just some bioballs if I can fit them. Any reason this would not work for denitrification?

Does nitrate reactor media really make that big of a difference? I've got the bioballs, so it would be nice to be able to put them to good use.

How much flow would be recommended for a system this small?

When I look at some of these reactors, they seem awfully complicated.

 

[dorkymk3]

I run two reactors, Using Two Little Fishies Phosban 150, I use Rowaphos in 1 reactor and Seachem Purigen on the other reactor to help with nitrates. So far my system is running more stable than before.

 

[jimmy frag]

you could do it but run water through it slow and make sure the intake is not in an area of high oxygen, once up and running, dont disturb it. will most likly take 6-8 weeks to kick in

 

[dela]

Actually, I would say my sump is very high oxygen as the tank is up one floor and there are quite a few bubbles. Also, the skimmer empties into the sump. That is why I was going to coil the tubing and use two units in series, but...

Would it be more effective to fill the phosban reactors with bio-pellets and direct the output into my skimmer?

I'm assuming there is no reason to restrict the flow in a bio-pellet configuration? I've not seen one of these bio-pellet reactors in action, but what I understand, they work more like fluidized filters. And then you just skim out the bacteria?

 

[dela]

Looks like I just need to start things off very slow and use a "mesh mod" to make a phosban reactor work for bio-pellets...

 

[Gorgok]

As i understand with bio pellets you want as much contact time as possible while keeping them fluidized. So restricting flow is definitely good to have.

 

[dela]

From what I've read, with old school nitrate reactors using bio-balls the flow is VERY low. Like just enough to keep the water from stagnating within the reactor. These would be single digit gph's.

With these bio-pellet reacotors, since you are providing a food source for the bacteria, I was under the impression that the more flow, the better, as it exposes the bacteria to as much nitrate as possible and keeps the media in suspension. So this would be in the hundreds of gph's.

Or have I totally misundersood things?