jamal June 19, 2007 June 19, 2007 i have commissioned dan to build me a nitrate buster so i will be writing updates and ultimately reviews as info becomes available. i am so excited. and i get to buy vodka! for the bacteria
dandy7200 June 20, 2007 June 20, 2007 What is a nitrate buster? Sulfur denitrator. Recirculating design based off my m-15 calcium reactor. Jamal, thanks Looking forward to this project as well
bigJPDC June 20, 2007 June 20, 2007 What is a nitrate buster? A very complicated set of machinery which performs a 20% water change on your system bi-monthly.
yauger June 20, 2007 June 20, 2007 A very complicated set of machinery which performs a 20% water change on your system bi-monthly. Umm I don't think I understand now....
bigJPDC June 20, 2007 June 20, 2007 just poking fun - I tried a ton of things for nitrates in my system and ultimately upping my water changes solved it almost instantly. If anybody can pull off the de-nitrater build, it's Dandy. jp
jamal June 20, 2007 Author June 20, 2007 well believe me i have tried and based on the amount of feeding i like to do and the fish load im looking at it works for me. all it does is create an environment inside the reactor where bacteria consume nitrates and then put them back in the water nitrate free. they use oxygen and when thats gone they use nitrates. even if i can get my macro to grow later i still like the idea of the reactor because if nitrates are too high the macro may not be able to keep up and that will be disastrous. hth
geofloors June 20, 2007 June 20, 2007 You won't need Vodka for a sulphur denitrator. The sulphur beads do all the work in an oxygen depleted environment. George
yauger July 8, 2008 July 8, 2008 Jamal, did this project ever pan out for you? if so what were the results of reducing the high nitrates in the system? how did this have an effect on your fish? corals? inverts? I'm now curious about this process but am hitting some serious conflicting reports of sucess. thanks!
Brian Ward July 8, 2008 July 8, 2008 I'm sure results are still pending. Dan's a bit busy opening a new restaurant and nationally launching his Grey Seas line of products ...
jamal July 8, 2008 Author July 8, 2008 i have had it for about 2 months or so now. my nitrates have come down so when i replace my rodi unit in the very near future i will be set. once you get it adjusted its fine but you must keep an eye on the orp level to make sure its still producing 0 nitrates. as of yesterday it is. this a unit for people that want to maintain very low nitrates in a well maintained system. the drip is slow so if you have a large system you can imagine how long it would take especially if your nitrates were above 60ppm as mine once were. it brought my nitrates down from 40ppm to 20ppm at one point. though if you have a mixed reef you need to produce some trates. its also good if you feed your corals as well as i do to control nutrients. i have a carnation coral that is already growing but i have only had it for 2 months. i would recommend this as part of an overall filtration strategy rather than an alternative for dsb's and macroalgae. if anyone wants to know more just ask
jamesbuf July 9, 2008 July 9, 2008 I have one of these as well, not one of Dan's, but the exact same concept.....Ca reactor filled with sulfur beads. My tank used to hover around 60-70ppm nitrates before I setup the reactor. 6 months later, now I'm around 5ppm. The concept is that you create an oxygen deprived environment inside the reactor, and specialized bacteria converting nitrates into nitrogen and oxygen gas. In the beginning you have to have a sloooooow drip through the reactor. This is to establish the reactor as a low oxygen environment and allowing the bacteria to grow and multiply. You have to measure the nitrates of the effluent and if there are any nitrates remaining, you need to slow down the drip rate. If there are no nitrates, then you slowly increase the drip rate. I've gotten mine to were the drip rate is just short of a small stream, with no nitrates coming out. I do find that I test the effluent sometimes and the nitrates will have jumped to 15 or so, so I end up having to slow down the flow. I've read a few articles where people have used an ORP probe to control the flow through the reactor. If the oxygen level gets too high, then the flow into the reactor shuts off. Then the water continues to circulate inside the reactor until the oxygen levels decrease enough to where the controller will allow more water into the reactor. I plan on doing this, but unfortunately this will mean that the reactor will have to be re-commissioned since you're opening up the reactor and allowing oxygen in, killing the good bacteria. The good thing about it is that the commissioning should take way less time since its being controlled with an ORP probe. I'll make sure to post my results.
jamal July 9, 2008 Author July 9, 2008 i have an orp probe on my reactor. i try to keep it between negative 175 and 200mv. it works but like all nitrate solutions it takes time.
jamesbuf July 9, 2008 July 9, 2008 i have an orp probe on my reactor. i try to keep it between negative 175 and 200mv. it works but like all nitrate solutions it takes time. Did you just flip the wires on a AC ORP probe, or did you go with one of the Milwakee ORP controllers?
jamal July 9, 2008 Author July 9, 2008 you run the orp probe as a ph function on the probe. so the reading is 10.7. translated that is 58x 3.7 which is negative 214.
jamesbuf July 9, 2008 July 9, 2008 I will say that I've been having some low pH issues recently. This is something new, and I've only been battling it for 5 weeks or so. I know the effluent from the nitrate reactor is usually between 6.8-6.9. That is the reason why most sulfur reactors some with some calcium reactor media to include within the reactor, to help with raising the pH. I just hooked up the effluent to run through a phosban reactor filled with calcium reactor media, to hopefully raise the pH a little before it hits the tank(similar to having a dual chambered Ca reactor). I don't know if my low pH issues is due to the sulfur reactor or not, but I'm hoping the effluent reactor will help. I have a standard grade and a lab grade probe both reading 7.56 and 7.54 right now on my ACIII. Yes this low, even with my all my lighting on in the tank. My pH actually raises during the night when my refugium light comes on. Before I had the refugium back up and running, the pH would drop to around 7.4 at night . I thought the lab grade had gone bad on me, so I hooked up the new standard probe to verify. Both have been reading the same pH. The funny thing is that my Ca has been slightly high, as well as my Alk. I am completely stumped. I'm not sure if my pH problems are due to my sulfur reactor, but I guess I'll find out when I take the reactor offline to switch over to the ORP probe controlled-automated system. The only parameter really out of line is that my phosphates are pretty high. A big reason why I re-setup my refugium so I would have some chaeto pulling out phosphates. Like Jamal said, I think the reactor is just one part of the solution.
yauger July 9, 2008 July 9, 2008 This is turning into a very informative thread; keep up the great posts gang. We all will benefit from your testing approaches into reducing nitrates in captive reef systems... Thanks!
Recommended Posts