Denitrator

I have been looking for information on Denitrators. I understand how they work and how to make one, but I don know if I want to because I have heard they can be bad. What are the risks of useing a coil denitrator, and should I make on if my tank(freshwater) is typically boderline on nitrates. I understand that WC's are the best thing, but I have trouble keeping track of when i did them, and remembering to do them.

 

Try this thread:
http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/coild-denitrator-question-44214.html

 

O.K I have to ask' Who said the simple old coil is bad or could be a problem ..Been using them longer then I can remember on salt and fresh and never a problem unlike with the sulfur and sugar fed reactors of the last 20 yrs or so.. Problem is they are cheap safe and low tech and will not make anyone rich or famous . And pretty much hands off I think that may be a problem for tweaker geeks ?

 

problem is you cant buy a coil denitrator - i've searched everywhere for one, and i cant be bothered to make one....... so lazy!

 

I've seen them for sale on ebay, but they want something like almost $200.00

 

P/M me we make and ship them almost weekly I can have the shop get you one out tomorrow ready to to Hope to get the shopping cart done while I'm laid up here at home.. Reason they don't sell them is not much money in them they last yrs and cost nothing to operate LOL Nothing else to buy ever .. One I'm running here is 7 yrs old I guess and I brought it up from Va it was already cured and the NO3 are zero evey since. We hace a very heavy load also..

 

Was it the aquamedic or a sulfur or carbon source box ? 200.00 ? I may have to raise eour prices LOL just joking .

 

Reef Guru is an opponent of the C/D, if you look at my thread in the DIY forum he lists his reasons, if i remember right he had one dump sulpher dioxide into his tank and crash it.

 

well then can you make sure i have the basic idea right?? All it basically is is a long hose in a dark environment. Also I think I have read that a black hose is dark enough...is this true??

 

no, the hose does not have to be dark, the substrate inside the tube has to be dark.

it works like this,
water travels down the coil (the longer the better) where it is stripped of oxygen by 1 type of bacteria, then it is pushed through the substrate inside the main chamber where another bacteria that requires no oxygen and no light strips the water of nitrates. the water is then sent back to your system where it should be put back into your skimmer pick up area where it can be recharged with oxygen before going into your tank.

The flow must be very slow as to allow time for the bacteria to work and not be washed into the tank, but fast enough as to not allow it to become stagnant.

you can run the coil on the inside very time consuming and a challange to get it neat, or you can run it on the outside, much easier and leaves a little extra space inside for more substrate. I will post pictures of the one i built a little later today, it took me about 1 hour with only a drill and a tap and die set mats cost me about 40 bucks not including the substrate.
you can use anything as a substrate some have used hair curlers, bio-balls, etc i went with Ehiem glass beads.