Do it yourself Denitrator

Let the water go back into the tank, the biological filter will adjust and take care of the nitrites. If you are not this is just a painfully slow water change! :

As for nitrites in the return water...from what I read this is normal but Tangster has the experience. If there are still nitrites in the water I would take that as a good sign that the O2 is getting removed and the bio balls will have the perfect O2 depleted water that they need.

 

i was worried that all of those nitrites would turn into nitrates.. Deafeating the entire purpose.?

 

That will happen but you denitrator will adjust to its bio-load and should even it all out. I would assume that this is just like your cycle on the bio filter....it will over populate...starve off some...over populate...starve some off...repeated until all the spikes are almost undetectable. It's just how nature works.

What are you doing with the water? I'm assuming throwing it out so why waste the time of treating it?

 

Yeah, I'm just throwing it out. I am treating it because I was hoping that the nitrites and nitrates would be zero on the output.

 

Its been running for how many hrs now ? Let the drip rate stay where you have it now 1 or 2 per. second and let it be . forget about it every time the flow is tweaked it has to restart. I can on my design up to 8 weeks to totally cure up. are you catching the coils outlet water and throwing that out ? Just set it forget it every so often look to make sure its dripping and just leave it alone let the outlet water drip back into sump or tank if a pump is used.. Bacteria work on their schedule ..

 

Running at about 72 hours now. The output is 1.0ppm nitrite and 20ppm nitrate. My tank is at 5ppm nitrate.. So, it appears to be making nitrates. Yes, I am dumping to outlet water until the nitrites dissapear, unlesss that's a bad idea. I'm just using a siphon feed from the display.

 

Lotzo the nitrites are not going to disapear they are coming from the ammonia being broken down by the bacteria in the tube it is the bi-product. When all the O2 is used up the nitrite eating bacteria can't eat, the rest of your biological will adjust to take care of that. Your defeating the purpose of stabalizing your tank when you throw out the water.

 

OOOOOOOO.... I feel a bit silly.. HEHEHE, I'm glad you guys are on here to straighten me out! ;D How about the elevated nitrates? Should I wait until they drop before dropping it into my sump?

 

Nitrates probably are not elevated but regardless that is what this thing is for, if you are not running it they won't go down. Whatever nitrates are going in are just the same ones coming out right now. As it cures it wont hurt anything my nitrates were pretty high and everything managed (it is fish only). All the bacteria will even itself out over a few weeks.

 

OH, ok.. I was worried that it wasn't working correctly due to my poor workmanship.