Any diy'ed a coil denitrator before?

[Gonkie]

Hi all,

Would like to check if anyone have diy'ed a coil denitrator and used it successfully to reduce nitrates?

[RX_GAN]

HI, have tried to do one before and know others who did.

Am thinking of trying to convert a canister filter into a denitrator. don't know if it works.

hahaha...

maybe u can try. get a canister filter and fill up with seachem denitrator filter product or biohome or maybe even sulphur beads.

add bacteria and some food...(some ppl use vodka..haha..no kidding)

then cover for a few days.

turn the knob and run at slow speed.(get a low power one in the first place)

To know if it's working, test the output water for nitrate.

if u want to make one, best is to use acrylic.

or else just get any container which can be seal.

put in at least 10 metre of air tubing and power with low pump rate.

the size of denitrator depends on the size of your tank.

denitrator maybe useful but cannot be solely depended on since it utilize biological means.

cheers.

[Gonkie]

Wanted to get some idea of the length of air tubing to be used before I embark on this project.

Thanks RX for your reply.

[dragonfly_sg]

From what I gathering if you daisy chain 3 to 4 cannister filter (spolit ones, but not leaking) with one low flow external pump, the water reaching the 3rd cannister should be without Oxygen. But it will take some time for the aerobic and later for the anaerobic bacterial to established themselves. Heard the denitration effect only takes hold only after 4 months.

I've also heard people using the hose method too. It's easier to get the whole coil from the hardware shop (I think its 30 or 40 meter) in there original wrapping and pull only the free end out from the coil to attached to a slow flow pump and the other end back to the tank. That way the main body of the coil stay in the plastic wrapping and its easier to handle. I always wonder if you drop bio-homes into the hose to fill it up, it'll probably be more effective, but it'll be very difficult to do that without uncoiling the hose from it's original wrapping.

Anyway, I have not personally tried this as they occupy space which I can ill afford in my little flat. Hope you'll be successful with your attempts.

[RX_GAN]

Hi, from what i have tried.

the denitration process shouldn't take that long if you leave the thing alone for sometime as i manage to get mine working in a week. too long and you may get a foul smell. that smell is bad as it's harmful to your livestock.

depending on how big your denitrator is, you will need how much of the air tubing.

as for using hose, you can do that if you doing a 3ft to 4ft tall DN. cos it will be too big for a small system.

you will want to squeeze more tubing instead of using bigger ones becos what you need here is anaerobic bacteria.

The longer it is, the more you get becos the long the journey, the faster the oxygen wlll be depleted.

then at the end you can put alot of ceramic noodles or other medium becos it will be the paradise for your anaerobic bacteria.

If you wanna use hose, you will need a big system so it depends on your needs.

as for length, i tried doing a small one and already utilize 10m so anything bigger you will need to measure it up.

but will recommend hose if you doing a big system.

Cheers. good luck bro.

[Gouldian]

Hi bros,

Actually can get those stiff 6mm pneumatic tube (those use in CR), 10m of it will cost less than $20 (depending on where you bought from), these are small, light and easy to store. Hook it up with a Aqualifter ($18) and you're in business.

HTH

[Gonkie]

Hi,

I'm planning to get a length of PVC pipe to make the coil denitrator. From what I read from various sources online on how to DIY the denitrator, some do not recommend using mat material for the core of the coil, althought mat will provide a lot of surface area for the anaerobic bacteria to host. The reason being the mat will clog up the system.

Would it be advisable to use sulphur beads then, with a layer of CaCO3 at the top to buffer the pH of the effluent? Not too sure on the mechanism of sulphur based denitrification, if oxygen is required or not to break down the nitrates or not. If oxygen is required, it would mean that sulphur beads will not be a good idea, since the water at the end of the coil would be oxygen-deficient, no?

For those who are interested in trying out this DIY project, you can get a coil of air tubing from C328 at $6.50 for a length of 50m.

[MadScientist]

hmm, sorry to hijack the thread.

anyone tried any other denitrator designs than coil design?

thx

[tomowilson]

can try using a FR with sulphur beans and coral chips to buffer the ph. Using this setup now, working well but a problem is that need to adjust drip rate once a while.

[MadScientist]

tinking of using dsb in the FR, anyone tried b4?