DYI Denitrifier

[sanababit]

hello guys, this is my first post, so i am here to share my second attempt on a denitrifier, first one was a coil system, let it cycle for almost 3 months and it did not work, ended up taking it appart, heres a photo
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z196/sanababit/DSC00213.jpg
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z196/sanababit/DSC00214.jpg

well my second attempt was a sulphur based denitrifier which i made out of a phosban reactor, no-no3 media, a little mj1200 pump, 1/4 tubing, 1/4 jaco valves, took about an hour to make and hook up, let it cycle and after 7 days i got 0 nitrates coming out of the outflow, here are some pictures
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z196/sanababit/022.jpg

and here are the results, on the left the outflow of denitrifier and on the right nitrate level in my tank
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z196/sanababit/043.jpg

word of caution, when you install it let it cycle for at least 7 days to get all of dust, and suspended sulphur, in that time you will have a lot of nitrite and nitrate coming out of it, just send it to a bucket, after nitrates go down to zero, hook it up to your sump and let it do its magic, its been 2 weeks and my nitrates went from 20 to 15ppm, well thats my story, any questions please let me know, happy reefing

sana

[Jessy]

WOW that's awesome! I secretly added no nitrates to my aquaclear 50 on the back of my tank at one point, but I didn't get to leave it in too long and test it because I had to run carbon. :( I'd love to learn more about this. I always have too much nitrates

[sanababit]

well it was pretty easy to make, just get a reactor some NO-NO3 media from caribsea, a little pump, tubing and ball valves, fill the reactor with media, install pump inside your sump and conect the tubing to it, send tubing to inlet of reactor, on the outlet put a little 1/4 ball valve to restrict the flow, start with a drop a second for the first 7 days and let it cycle, thats it, not to hard:rolleyes: lol

good luck

sana

[Gotakuf1]

Nicely done, Sana! I'm very curious to see how this works for you in the long run. Please keep us updated.

[sanababit]

well guys i got nothing to say but this thing is working great, i have 0-2 ppm nitrate and recently won a bout with cyano, they are really easy to make and i'm very happy that i made one for my owngoing problems with nitrates, btw i feed a little bit more and havent changed the water in a month, IMHO i used to change 10% of water every week and did not lower nitrate, now i know better.

[wannareef]

let see if I got this right, you bought a phospan reactor and some NO-NO3, you put the pump in the sump, for the first 7 days you pumped a drop every second into a bucket, after the 7 days, you open it up all the way and had it drain back into the sump, the first 7 days was to clear the dust and sulfer out, how long will the no-no3 last, how often would you change the media, I like this idea.

[sanababit]

first, get a phosban reactor and fill it up with no-no3 media, get a small pump like an mj 400 or smaller (i had an mj1200 and this pump was sending water to two other reactors with phosban, carbon) if you are just using this pump for the sulphur reactor, next hook up your reactor to the pump using 1/4" tubing, on the outflow of the reactor install a 1/4" ball valve and close it enough to get a drop a second coming out, at first send the outflow to a bucket so you dont send any dust or nitrtite, nitrate back to your sump, this will take about a week to cycle, be patient it will work, test,test,test, and after testing again you will have no nitrate coming out of reactor, after felling comfortable with the results of your test, you can increase the outflow to 3 or 4 drop a second, never open the outflow all the way because you can send hydrogen sulfide or ammonia to your tank.

[SuperDragon]

Did you learn how to make this at about.com?

Here's a link for those of you who don't know what it is, how it works, or how to make one. :)
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/diydenitratorplans/DIY_Denitrator_Unit_Plans.htm

this is an article on how to control nitrates (pretty good)
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/nitratecontrol/ss/nitratecontrol_4.htm

this article is on long term nitrate control (Hiatt Method) :D
http://saltaquarium.about.com/library/blank/bl_nitratereduction.htm

That's a pretty cool setup you got there. I love DIY stuff, especially when mine work :p

[Solro]

How often does the carbon need to be replaced with the Hiatt Method?

[SuperDragon]

every 3-5 years when used as biological media

[Solro]

Any idea why more people don't use it? This is the first time i've heard about it.

Seems great but too good to be true at the same time

[SuperDragon]

Sorry to hijack this thread.

I've spent quite a bit of time talking to Bill Hiatt and the secret bacteria (pseudemonas)... it's been in development for 7 years until he got it right.

I felt the same way 1 month ago when I setup my 20 gallon... all I can say is that it's annoying to have the return pipe above the water, but its keeps it clear and no need for a skimmer. I rinsed out 1/2 the carbon (or backflush) after 1 month as instructed, but I know some who rinses it out for 15 minutes.
All I can say is that it seems to be a great filtration method. I have the 20g Hiatt thread posted on sdreefs if your curious what I did almost everyday.

I'm getting my first shipment of bacteria for sale soon.

[sanababit]

Hello guys, sorry for not posting, but here is an update, well after 3 months of continous use of my denitrifier at 0 ppm nitrate, i noticed a rotten egg smell and a white film inside reactor, i tested denitrifier and output was at ~5ppm so the only thing to do was to replace media, i cleaned it out, put new media in, cycled it again, and after a week its back to 0 ppm on the outflow of denitrifier, this time i covered it from light, which in my opinion was one of the reasons my denitrifier went bad. good luck

sana

[sanababit]

Well it's been a almost a year now with my denitrifier online, i have had no problems at all, every so often i do get nitrates coming out of the denitrifier, i believe that is caused because nitrate is no longer present in my tank and all anaerobic bacteria die thus creating nitrate, after a couples of days i will have nitrate in the tank and will cycle my denitrifier again, bringing the amount of trates to 0 again, i have changed the water in the past year about 10 times (1 time chemiclean treatment, 2 flatworm exit treatments, 1 interceptor treatment, the rest just because, lol), so far so good, thanks

Sana