Coiled Denitrator DIY

A refugium will remove nitrates and phosphates, whereas a CD will only remove some nitrates. A fuge will also balance your pH level in the water since the plants absorb the CO2 let out by the fish and other livestock and will in turn reoxygenate the water. IMHO, the benefits of a fuge cannot be replaced by any one single piece of equipment.

 

what about if you combaing them

 

Agreed, not to mention its all natural. Luna

 

If you combine them, one of them will strave. Luna

 

I know this an old trend bit it is very interesting.
I built one about 2 years ago and it never got it to cycle. I never fed it as the instructions then did not suggest it needed to be fed. I am making some changes and will try again. I took it apart today and added 6 feet more 1/4" tubing. I have some fiberus filter media on the way. You know the kind, it is white and about 1/2" thick. I plan on rolling the media up to a size that will just fit into the housing, This will give me much more area for the process to work. The hard part will be getting all the air un-trapped in the filter material. I am thinking about wetting the material prior to rolling it up. Maybe add 10 gals of prepared water in the bathtub and assemble it right there. I also am going to put the valve on the input line to reduce the pressure inside the DN thus reducing the chance of leaking.
Any other ideas to improve the design?

 

Raimond, i made one with 60 ft of coiled tubing stuffed inside the tube. I never released the water into the tube. it worked great on my 75. KISS is good. and slow water. you want the water to drip out of it. if you get a stream, that is too fast.

 

Pickupman

I tried a drip every 2 seconds and a steady drip but not a stream, Nothing seamed to work for mine. I am going to dose mine with some of the available liquid bacteria I have on hand when I put it back together.

 

Interesting... havent heard of them not cycling...

 

PickupMan66
I tested mine today and nitrates on the output were 40 and my tank was about 5. I think the refugium is doing just fine without the DN. It appears that it was beginning to cycle this time after about 10 days. Took it offline again as my nitrates are under control now, Wish it would have worked when I built it.

 

Why take it offline? it is almost cycled. once you get it running, leave it there. it will do its job. I dont have any nitrate issue now as my tank is WAY too new with low bioload. I have mine running so that it is ready when it needs to be.