Nitrate remover...

[kareen]

Stumble upon this thread in another forum....

http://www.sareefkeeping.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10953

Is there such a product in the market yet?

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6297033-description.html

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5660142-description.html

[adrianlau]

Erm... too complicated for me. I know that most of these filter media are available locally.

[kareen]

Erm... too complicated for me. I know that most of these filter media are available locally.

Thanks... what caught my eyes is a paragraph....

The invention is based on polymer-entrapment of a denitrifying combination of bacteria together with a suitable carbon source which is slowly degraded by a combination of two different bacteria. The bacteria comprise of a combination of denitrifying and fermentative bacteria which, when entrapped in a suitable polymer and in the presence of an organic carbon source, are capable of reducing nitrate to nitrogen gas without intermediate accumulation of toxic metabolites (e.g. nitrite).

[kareen]

Hi!

What are the method deploy to keep nitrate low? [apart from the low feeding, water change and stronger skimmer...] I have been reading a little on this area and found

DIY Sulfur Denitrator

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...mp;pagenumber=1

DIY canister-diy-denitrator

http://www.indodragon.com/forum/f4/eheim-c...enitrator-3045/

Appreciate if any reefers who have the experiences and share the thoughts....

some photos which I saved from the above threads..

[kareen]

The Sulfur Denitrator seems promising to reduce large amount of nitrate but I'm not too sure about the SO4 impact though....

[Ah-lim]

If I recall, sulphate could be kept low with the practice of regular water change. Sulphate wouldn't be that bad yet as there is little info abt the impact of sulphate in reef tank.

Ya can try a remote DSB, 1 coral life pail with sand, 12-14 inch sand bed.

But not nice-looking. haha.

[kareen]

If I recall, sulphate could be kept low with the practice of regular water change. Sulphate wouldn't be that bad yet as there is little info abt the impact of sulphate in reef tank.

Ya can try a remote DSB, 1 coral life pail with sand, 12-14 inch sand bed.

But not nice-looking. haha.

u mean the remote DSB is capable of keeping the tank nitrate low? Any references of thread? Thanks

BTW, any reefers with de-nitrator story....

[Ah-lim]

http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/index.php?...=44458&st=0

I got a pic somewhere....cannot find. >.< posted last yr..

Juz curious, how high is your nitrate now?

[kareen]

about 80ppm ...

[Ah-lim]

woohhhhh.... I presume ya already hav a refugium, some mangrove... and still high ?

hmmmm..... stonger light for cheato?

[kareen]

I do have cheato, mangroove, etc... macro algae grow well too... My nitrate is high 'cos I have quite a bit of sunnies and very often when I'm busy, I'll simply flood my tank with coral food.... All corals in my tank are softies and LPS only. They look pretty okay to me and some are propagating in my tank even with nitrate at this level...

I am reading the thread u provide.... Is there any quick tip or advise from you?

1) how u construct the DBS. Eg. sand grade and thickness.

2) determine the proper flowrate thru' it. maybe quote your case

3) Is the water pump into the lowest layer of DBS from inlet and the outlet pipe is like an opening to let the water out?

[nwyk153]

about 80ppm ...

LOl, mines 40ppm . Tried everything. Still no difference . I'm using SERA test kits.

[arcanehacker]

Why not just try a sulfer denitrator and solve the nitrate problems.. I like to feed like crazy and my nitrate is less that 5 now. If you follow my past posting, I had an issue with Nitrate. I've seen past 100ppm. Everyday it increases by 1-2ppm.. monthly or even weekly water change here will not help if you do the calculation. I would require extra large water change constantly which is not good for the biological stability of the tank. Now with a denitrator, its been controlled... nuff said. Poisoning? not possible unless due to human neglect/lazyness. Monitoring of the drip is the key.

Instead of getting all these new theories why may or may not work. Even if it works 100%, where's the product? Not here yet..

You could DIY one but dun think its that easy.. might not even work well so far from all I've seen.

Besides, what's stated above IS probably what a denitrator (sulphur or feed kind) would contain and do.

Yes DSB and live rocks will control nitrate.. thats how nature does it, don't it? Making use of bacterias to break down... of course you must have as mch live rocks as possible and both LR and DSB must be very matured with lots of live and bacterial.

[kareen]

Why not just try a sulfer denitrator and solve the nitrate problems.. I like to feed like crazy and my nitrate is less that 5 now. If you follow my past posting, I had an issue with Nitrate. I've seen past 100ppm. Everyday it increases by 1-2ppm.. monthly or even weekly water change here will not help if you do the calculation. I would require extra large water change constantly which is not good for the biological stability of the tank. Now with a denitrator, its been controlled... nuff said. Poisoning? not possible unless due to human neglect/lazyness. Monitoring of the drip is the key.

Instead of getting all these new theories why may or may not work. Even if it works 100%, where's the product? Not here yet..

You could DIY one but dun think its that easy.. might not even work well so far from all I've seen.

Besides, what's stated above IS probably what a denitrator (sulphur or feed kind) would contain and do.

Yes DSB and live rocks will control nitrate.. thats how nature does it, don't it? Making use of bacterias to break down... of course you must have as mch live rocks as possible and both LR and DSB must be very matured with lots of live and bacterial.

yeah... I know but this is going to be cheap.... Here's a picture from one of the pages... Anyway, I'm still researching on the topics. Hope to hear more comments

[kareen]

somemore ideas...

[Ah-lim]

From th picture,

we can see that the inlet is smaller than the outlet.

both inlet are level, above the RDSB.

However, do note that there must be enough flow so that dentris would not stay there and rot.

Hmmm, I think i use a 1500litre/hr pump for flow. a bit forgetful.

By the way, this will take roughly 1 month for it to kick in. Any grade of sand will do. I used beach sand grade, nv use coral chips, haha.

It quite popular in reef central, google," RSDB+reef central "

[kareen]

From th picture,

we can see that the inlet is smaller than the outlet.

both inlet are level, above the RDSB.

However, do note that there must be enough flow so that dentris would not stay there and rot.

Hmmm, I think i use a 1500litre/hr pump for flow. a bit forgetful.

By the way, this will take roughly 1 month for it to kick in. Any grade of sand will do. I used beach sand grade, nv use coral chips, haha.

It quite popular in reef central, google," RSDB+reef central "

Thanks for sharing.... I'm quite excited about this... the startup cost and running is low..... except how to make it more presentable looking....

[kareen]

"both inlet are level, above the RDSB."

I thought inlet is at the side of pail while the outlet is at the pail cover.... Can u clarify on this? Thanks

[Ah-lim]

I did mine this way.

if the outlet is at the lid cover, I muz make sure that the lid and the pail has no leak in between.

Anyway, depends on ya design bah, at the end of the day, concept still the same.

[kareen]

Thanks for the clarify.... Is it important to cover the pail with lid? Also, do u mind to tell me how much this has bring ur nitrate down.... Many thanks

[Ah-lim]

I used this 2 yrs ago when my nitrate hit 80.

I manage to drop it to ard 50, but last time no sump, so oh well....better than nothing.

Now not using, as dun have nitrate problem so far. :P

[kareen]

hm... not so effectively for your case then.... BTW, did u covered the pail with lid that time u deploy this?

PS: What is your current method of curing nitrate?

[Ah-lim]

Some other reefers got better result.

My old tank was bad.....lol.

Oh, now, I had cheato and red bamboo for sump.

And massive amount of live rocks.

I cut down on frozen food as well, find phospate a nuisance...

no corals, so abit easier for me.

[Victor007]

HI, if ur nitrate is above 20, i suggest u do a water change before carrying out any of these experiments or equipment. if u will to ask anyone more experienced in this, u will get the same answer, which is water change.

these method are to help u in maintaining the NO3 level not totally lowering it.

even if lowering it down to 50, to reach 80ppm, means that are many impurities and other substances.

and these can be removed too.

wat i suggest is u do a water change slowly and stop or minimize feeding for now until u reach 20ppm or less.

becos if u look at it in this way, daily breakdown of food and waste contribute to nitrate and plus ur current level.

it will currently well above 100ppm becos ur liverocks play a part in lower nitrate too.

so even if u employ any of these methods, it will be taxing to deal with both the daily output and the accumulative level together.

water changes will lower ur accumulative level and allow ur denitrator or DSB to work in control the daily output.

I feed heavily with frozen and pellet. and with a diy canister denitrator, my level stay at 5to10.

plus with a dsb at the last compartment of my sump.

i dun really ultilise heavy skimming but just little. but heavy skimming currently will do u well.

once a week will feed my denitrator with sugar sugar...cos my canister have a small hole that can be open at the top.

otherwise u will need to diy ur own sugar input.

and for sulphur denitrator, it will affect ur pH so dun play with it without monitor.

as for dsb, it works the same as denitrator, in fact using the same theory.

but there is one big disadvantage which is circulation.

depends on how u circulate it, too low of circulation can cause formation of some toxic gases.

that's wat i experience before and alot of fishes died because of that.

but if circulation is too strong, it will not work also cos too much oxygen kill all the anaerobic bacteria.

cheers.

i have heard many good review of sulphur denitrator but u need to monitor the pH.

and right now i am trying mangrove to remove the nitrator totally to zero, hope it will works.

if they grow successfully, will get another 30 to grow in my sump.

[LaW]

i have a sulphur d with 3.5kg beads in it. its a recirculating running in my 250g.

the sulphur d needs monitoring thru out the initial stage but i will say wont be less than a month to get the right flow.

and my sulpur d kicked in from as fast as from the 4th day using it. the water coming out is acidic so i add about 2 kg of aragonite to buffer it and the ph of the water coming out is about 7.

and monitor ur ph in ur main tank, since using a sulphur d, the tank ph lower by abit, and i need to use abit of buffer once in while.

for sulfate in tank water, there is no known threat to it. you can either use lower sulphur content salt. hear coralife is one of them. and futhermore, with proper water change, sulphur should never be a problem.

and if im not wrong, from what i read somewhere in RC, it gives out 3 SO4 for 2 NO3. this value is not very signficant when sea water SO4 is around 2700ppm.