Natural Nitrate removal

[quote author=beamer link=board=Newbie;num=1091586284;start=0#8 date=08/05/04 at 05:35:53]I'll get you a pic of some. Some people also call it brillo pad because that's kind of what it looks like.

cindy[/quote]

 

Here's another in my little fuge. It just kind of stays balled up like a brillo pad.

 

Close up in the fuge.

 

You can always get yourself a 800-900 gl tank like one of the guys here has and change the water every 4 years. That's what I'd like to be able to do.

Cindy ;D

 

Here is a pic of a Nitrate coil. Basically a coil of tubing inside a cylinder filled with bio-material (balls, nylon pot scrubbers, anything that has surface area for the aerobic bacteria to adhere and grow). The water is pumped through at a drip rate and the anerobic bacteria do their thing. It takes time for it to establish effectiveness, but these things work for a long time. I will post plans in a new thread when I get done!! ;D

Water from tank pumped in tube at top left, down through coil, slowly back up through the material (blue), and back out into the water column ( in my case in the sump, somewhere)

Drew  8)

 

[quote author=crutkas link=board=Newbie;num=1091586284;start=0#9 date=08/05/04 at 06:55:09]Nitrate coil?

If there is some other way than a water change to lower them and not natural, do tell.[/quote]

There are Nitrate sponges and removers available, but I have no idea if they actually work or not

The Nitrate coil as posted by Drew is by far the simplest method that I know about, it is almost "set and forget" and after a few months starts to drip out Nitrate free water, an few months after that a Nitrate free tank.

John

 

Caulerpa macroalgae is not an algea I can feed to a tang or something, right?

Because right now, the coil sounds like the best idea. I'm imagining it is suppose to be at the end of a sump process too.

Once I read it off of About.com, the coil made sense.

So basically once I have that installed, I just need a topper system to help deal with evaporation. Then no water changes.

Freakin sweet.

 

i have had a coiled denitrator for about 9 years, my reef went from over 100 ppm nitrates to 0 nitrates. it took about 6 months to work but once it worked mannnnnn does it work. here is a pic of it in action. set and forget....i never touch it, i just make sure that water drips out of it at a set rate, and thats it.

 

and here is the reef it is on

 

How big does the coil "tank" have to be?

I'm lookin at a 20 gallon fuge and 72 gallon tank to get.