Anyone have experience using?

Are you sure that's the Seachem's fault?

 

Reef Guru

Sulphur denirators are not toxic. They never have been. I spend a lot of time reading Zeovit forums and German reefkeeping threads. Those guys love these. None report Hydrogen Sulphide. They haven't been around that long but most who use them have great results.

Here's a great article by Charles Delbeek AquariumFish.com :: Aquarium Fish International :: The monthly magazine for both novice and expert aquarium hobbyists.

Theres another really good article but its in french and my translation skills aren't so good.

 

No you don't want to do this. The DSB should
1. have sloooow flow
2. it should not have light because the resulting algae can clog the dsb, and will the detritus if you have a mat of chaeto in there. Totally defeating the purpose.

I don't think inline will be the best, but will work if you have no other option. The flow should be higher through the fuge area than through the RDSB.

 

Actually J2, you want a fast moving stream above the sand in the RDSB is ideal. But the light is certainly not kosher.

An absolute wealth of knowledge can be had about RDSBs in this thread remote dsb

BTW yes they do work. I've setup many of them. I even had one that was in a 35 gallon Brute container. I finally pulled it baecause the sand was getting ripe and I want to avoid OTS.

 

i agree denitrators are not toxic, and they need constant attention, to much trouble than what there worth. but, when they backfire its deadly, again hydrogen sulfide. you can show me what ever article you want and promote them as much as you want, i have personal experience on how bad they are.

 

Actually all the Pro's say that a sulphur denitrator only needs to be setup and then they never need to be touched. Thats why there so much better than coil denitraters. Did you read the article? Did you know that Dr. Bruce Carlson uses them. Have you ever read his book about the Wikekee (sp) Aquarium? Its a pretty good read.

Which one did you use? What media did you use? The purity level is very important.

Heres some good stuff about them.

Existing Methods
Before we recommend a new process to customers, we make sure we have tested them ourselves on our own systems. We have long held the view that if you design a natural system with the management of nutrients in mind, nitrate and phosphate can be almost forgotten. But with all the best laid plans, you often end up with excess nutrients. These may be due to a higher load of fish or inefficiency in the system’s denitrification abilities. Either way; even the best systems can end up with a nagging 10-20ppm of residue nitrate. The options currently available to resolve excess nitrate would normally take the route of increasing water changes, adding more live rock, or increasing things like the deep sand beds or adding mangroves.

An option that many people have tried is the slow flow denitrator. These rely on anaerobic bacteria, colonising a suitable medium and the flow of water being slow enough, to become depleted of oxygen to create an environment they can thrive in. These bacteria will then multiply and consume the nitrate in the low oxygen water. If well set-up this method can be quite successful.

Enter Sulphur Denitrators
Guy Martin from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Rennes did the original work on fresh water treatments plants, although the science may pre-date this. The work was transferred to the marine environment and used by Michel Hignette, curator of the MAAO aquarium. A pilot project was launched. Since then the experiment was done on a much bigger scale, at the MAAO, as well as in the Grand Aquarium in Saint-Malo. All of these systems have been a great success and the systems have proved a real boon in large scale aquariums where the management of nitrate is often an after thought, when feeding displays stocked with large fish with voracious appetites. After these successes, there have been many sulphur denitrators added to private aquariums across the continent.

* Simple to set-up and manage.
* Needs no additional feeding with carbon based foods.
* Works well without the cost of additional electronic control.
* Will supply additional calcium to the tank when used as per instructions.
* Units can be ran in series for management of higher nitrate levels.
* Long lasting: up to 2-3 years.
* Units can be easily refilled.

Thats from over at Marine Depot's forum.

I have presented much information in favor of them. I myself don't run one. But based on my knowledge and experiance I can not say that there not worth using. I am certainly going to run one on my upcoming 450. It will be DIY but I will use the Korallian media.

 

i can write a book on something that is bad and make it look good with the backing of experts in order to sell the book. if you think there that good, then go right ahead and use one.

 

I disagree with the fast flow, I think that a slow (not coil denitration), laminar flow for maximum nutrient uptake is best. I too have had several, and researched this. Flow that is too fast ends up bringing o2 to the upper layers and making it less effective. Not only that but too much and you'll end up with sand in the effluent.

 

wow, you guys seem to have a lot of info on different technogies, seems a little overwhelming. For a cheap and quick trial, i am setting up a hanging overflow into a chaeto tank, then pumped back into my tank. I have most of the equipment already, so it won't cost much to try. The only problem is that i have to use a 15 gal tall tank due to my availble space. Will a 15 gal chaeto tank with a 300 gph rate be enough for a 80 gal tank?

 

i have a 15 gallon refugium with my 75 gallon, dont know the flow rate. its pretty slow. so your idea will work, a refugium is basically a mosh pit for caulerpa