Denitrators...Useful?

[nim75sg]

Better to be awakened than to live in ignorance.

Anyway... NNR is the basis of natural reefkeeping and should be taught from the start.

Anyway how many of us has the luxury of using NNR successfully in your reef or FOWLR tanks with the exception of God's gift ... The Ocean!

To be honest, most of us don't even have sufficient LR and likewise most of the refugiums are not effective enough to support in our tank.

That's the reason why we have to utilize technology to assist us in achieving water conditions as close as possible to those in our deep blue ocean.

Very few and for those who are successful, Congrats!

Be honest to yourself ... if your tank hasn't crash since day one till todate (at least 3 years), then Congrats as you are having a very mature or established tank!

But then there are few successful ones around and for those who had experienced a "crash" before, don't despair as you are not alone. Just learn from the bad experience and pick up the pieces from there.

[nim75sg]

.... but I use a refugium with DSB and it works well for me...

IMHO, there are many ways to skin a cat as the saying goes and you are the best judge to know what is best for your tank setup as yours differ from anyone of the reefers here.

What works for one reefer may not work for you.

[Achilles Tang]

I have some space in my sump tank and I thought of putting in more LR in one of the compartments, does it help reducing nitrates??

Definitely.

[Achilles Tang]

Anyway how many of us has the luxury of using NNR successfully in your reef or FOWLR tanks with the exception of God's gift ... The Ocean!

To be honest, most of us don't even have sufficient LR and likewise most of the refugiums are not effective enough to support in our tank.

That's the reason why we have to utilize technology to assist us in achieving water conditions as close as possible to those in our deep blue ocean.

Very few and for those who are successful, Congrats!

Be honest to yourself ... if your tank hasn't crash since day one till todate (at least 3 years), then Congrats as you are having a very mature or established tank!

But then there are few successful ones around and for those who had experienced a "crash" before, don't despair as you are not alone. Just learn from the bad experience and pick up the pieces from there.

Technology is meant to aid and not be the entire crux of reefkeeping.

Good biological filtration is the base of an ecosystem. A good example is that of the glass ball Biosphere where there's a balance between bioload, bacteria and algae to process nutrients and CO2, all in one enclosed system.

To reduce nitrates in a reef tank:

If you don't have enough LR, then add more in.

If your sandbed isn't deep enough for a DSB's NNR effect, add more sand.

If your algae in your refugium is not enough, add more in.

If your skimmer isn't good enough, upgrade to a better one.

If your tank is overloaded, remove more livestock.

If you're overfeeding, reduce feeding.

If you are lazy to do regular water changes, then stop being lazy.

If you have a lot of money and all the above fails to work, then buy the biggest skimmer you can afford, buy a sulfur denitrator in addition to a normal denitrator, use AZ-NO3, Polyfilters & Zeolite and hire someone to change water for you once a month.

If you have even more money, then move to a nice mansion next to the sea and pump seawater in continuously into your tank as a flow-through system.

If none of the above interests you, then perhaps you can buy a plasma screen, get a screensaver with a marine theme and pay the electricity bill promptly monthly.

[RAV-65]

Definitely.

Wow! great, den I rather get more liverocks than grow those nasty macroalgae....

Do I need to use lights on my sump?? with the rocks in it??

[RAV-65]

If none of the above interests you, then perhaps you can buy a plasma screen, get a screensaver with a marine theme and pay the electricity bill promptly monthly.

[Achilles Tang]

Wow! great, den I rather get more liverocks than grow those nasty macroalgae....

Do I need to use lights on my sump?? with the rocks in it??

Depends... light would be beneficial if you have coralline algae on it. Most species of coralline need some light.

[RAV-65]

Depends... light would be beneficial if you have coralline algae on it. Most species of coralline need some light.

Okie, thanks!

Hopefully can bring down my no3 from 5ppm to zero!!

Also, can get some treated rocks while I await my new tank...

[acroporidae]

hi, i have a qn to ask.

how come AT tank will crash hur? since he knows so much?

sorry but i am really curious.

thks

[Ancelot]

Sorry AT, I have another way pf phrasing the reason why live rocks need lights...

Live rocks are houses/homes to many copepods and your amphipods! So by introducing lights to your LR, you are actually growing algae, short turfs of algae those that look like dots of green on the walls of your tank. such that your copepods can graze on them and multiply. Additional to this, if your tank runs out of algae your copepod population will drop drastically! so thats why you want to introduce lights to your live rocks.. thats my another way of seeing the need of lights by LR...

AT, it is alright if you do not see my view eye to eye. As i said its my version of LRs needing lights.. my 2 cents worth

And with regards to acroporidae's question, speaking in general, i think no matter how experience anyone is, he/she will fail someday. Somethings from out of nowhere will pop out and KABABOOM! tank crash la.. Dr Murphy comes la.. Sps up the lorries la.. all sucha things will happen. It is a part and parcel of this hobby. We are humans we aint perfect therefore no matter how smart or experience we are in this hobby, we will still fail tats why we are trying to minimise our errors to the smallest..

[Fuzz]

hi, i have a qn to ask.

how come AT tank will crash hur? since he knows so much?

sorry but i am really curious.

thks

Nobody's perfect... but his has been the best and most well setup tank we've ever seen... IMO, if it can happen to AT's tank, it can happen to anybody's tank!

I think you should not even have ask it in this thread

[RAV-65]

My $0.02...

It doesn't mean the school principal knows everything...

It doesn't mean policeman dun have bad habits...

It doesn't mean musicians can't play the wrong tune...

[nim75sg]

This is one thread I really liked because it contains both educational and entertaining plus comical.

I am not sure how many reefers will get to read this thread but it is good that some of us are awakened to the importance of nitrates which sometime discussed sporadically or refer to the Internet for a better understanding of the Nitrogen Cycle.

It is also interesting to learn how terms like "mansion" and "plasma screen" has integrated into the marine vocabulary in the first place and has become part of the marine culture here.