Sugar Dosing

[Greg 45]

Can some one tell me how much to dose on a 300 gal. system.
I cannot seem to lower nitrates.
Almost all of my gha has died off.
Thank You

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Are you dosing it now?

[Greg 45]

No not yet . I started and stopped the vodka.
I added a deep sand bed in a separate tank.
Nothing seems to work.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Vodka did not work?

What happened?

[murraycamp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14490053#post14490053 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Greg 45
No not yet . I started and stopped the vodka.
I added a deep sand bed in a separate tank.
Nothing seems to work.

Mirroring Randy's comments, how long did you dose vodka and what was your dosing regimen? Also, have you considered a mixed carbon source? I have had success using that method in conjunction with a bacterial additive. It would also help to know more about your tank (volume, substrate, how old, parameters, ect.).

For a good read on mixed carbon sources and bacterial strain diversity, check out: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13829200#post13829200

[tmz]

I'm using a diy sulfur denitrator. Here's what happened from and earlier post on the diy thread.:

mz
Premium Member

Registered: Apr 2006
Location: West Seneca NY
Occupation: Public Administator,retired
Posts: 7626




This is an update :

Started the nitrate reactor diy version with 3 liters of sulfur( carrib sea LSM) and five or six inches of seachem matrix media (the pumice stone type), on the evening of 1/07. I cycled it by dripping the effluent into a bucket for the first week using system water for input. Dripping into a bucket was to avoid putting effluent ammonia and nitrite into the system during cycling. I did open it once due to a failure of the reticulating pump about a week after starting so full cycling was delayed .

1/08 Reactor : ammonia /135ppm,No2 /0.1(deep purple on API test), NO3 /30ppm. System : NO3 /80ppm.

1/15 Reactor: ammonia /0, NO2/ 0, NO3 /<5ppm.

2/12 Reactor: NO3/ 0 at a flow rate of 9000ml per hour(55 gallons per day). System NO3/ 50ppm.

2/25 Reactor: NO3/ 0 at 9000ml per hour. System less than 5 ppm NO3. Hooray.

I want to once again thank dj the author of this tread for sharing the dyi design and making the application much easier and less expensive than it might have been.

__________________
Tom

I have chaeto refugia and a remote deep sand bed. I also dose a small amount of vodka which seems to help PO4 but doesn't do much for nitrate.

[Greg 45]

Thanks murraycamp I am going to read the article.

[murraycamp]

Cool. Let me know if I can answer any questions; I would be happy to share my experiences with this methodology.