DIY Coil Denitrator Dilema

[djgoodbody]

Hello and firstly thanks for reading this thread,appreciate any comments thrown my way (applicable comments that is). I have recently construcred a diy coil denitrator using a 25kg salt bucket,85 feet of 1\4 inch air hose,powerhead for water in and all connections,i have a few questions regarding effectiveness and capacity which i cannot find answers for online.My drip rate is correct and the unit is working fine but the following questions remain unanswered, 1. Is the canister im using (12inch lid diameter)going to be less effective than your standard 4 inch denitrator? 2.Is the surface area inside the salt bucket a factor that will effect the bacteria colonies,3.Is this design going to be effective in reducing my nitrates?i understand it can take 5 to 6 weeks for the colony to establish,but if the unit is floored by some detail i have overseen i would be greatful fot the enlightenment, thanks to all Dan :spin1:

[djgoodbody]

does anybody out there have n answer??

[Vinny Kreyling]

Sounds like it should work fine.
Denitrators work on the principal of bacteria growing in a zone where there is no oxygen & consuming nitrates as their food. As long as there is a very slow flow & no light it should do well.

[djgoodbody]

Sounds like it should work fine.
Denitrators work on the principal of bacteria growing in a zone where there is no oxygen & consuming nitrates as their food. As long as there is a very slow flow & no light it should do well.

Thank you for you input, there is no light getting into the container as blacked it out, and fully sealed with no air in system, so should see results in 4 to 5 weeks, my main concern was drip rate as i thought as i had increased volume of denitator from the standard 4 inch to 12 that the drip rate would be effected, still havnt found an answer for this but set my drip to a fast drip,not 1 a second though just a tad slower than a flow but never the less a drip. Would appreciate any other comments,thanks Dan.:)

[Vinny Kreyling]

Since the slower the better on these I would try slowing the flow until the unit "Kicks In".
Perhaps after that a minor increase could be used.

[djgoodbody]

ok vinny will bare that in mind, thanks for your inputs.

[madean]

the use of a biggrr or smaller container imo is not relevant. Its how efficient the space is used. One person might figure how to shove 85 feet of air line tubing in a 4 " cannister but flow the water to fast making it useless. Or do it correct and get the same results as you should get. The answers your looking for are kind of subjective. Its hard to say how effective a diy project is. Even when a product is made by a company they are just suggested effective rates. Alot of people take those ratings for granted and think a filter rated for a 40 gallon tank will work perfect for a 40 galllon tank. When in fact the owner of the 40 gallon over stocks, over feeds and doesnt follow the manufactures maintenance schedule. Then the owner wonders why they are dealing with algea out breaks, fluctuating chemistry levels etc. My point being its hard to say how exactly this denitrator will react for you and if it will help fix what ever issues you have. I would test as many water perameters as you can and record them. Do it often. Start doing this now. The purpose is to see the trending. You will understand where tank is at and what happens with your system when you do something to it. Over time when you expect the denitrator to start working, you should see a trend of your nitrates going down. I dont know the rate they will decrease at. But it should start to decline. I would assume that if they go down and stop at a certain level and stay at that level for a long time than thats the capacity of your denitrator. But all of this is not going to happen overnight, this all takes time.

[djgoodbody]

thanks for your answer mad dean, just what i was looking for!

[NanoReefWanabe]

i would have used larger tube and lots more of it..i would have used 3/8 tube and a couple hundred feet...you have the space you might as well use it...the bigger the container is the faster you can flow the coil (which means you can process more water, providing you have enough tube in there)..somewhere along the line the water will be void of O2...then the NO3 eating bacteria can kick in...and use the entire innards of the pail and all the hose in it to colonize..colonizing in the actual tube is what your after the more tube the NO3 eating bacteria colonize the better as it allows room for adjustment on the flow rates... (but you have to strip the water of O2 prior to it coming back into the pail, otherwise it will never work, and that is why longer tube is better) making the tube a little larger relieves some of the head pressure on the pump.

if your NO3 levels in the display tank level out and dont drop to zero then you are not processing enough water through the coil..you can try to speed the coil's drip...but it may not work after that...ie speeding the drip may remove the NO3 eating bacteria because faster flow will allow less time to strip the water of O2 if there is O2 present in the pail you wont have the NO3 eating bacteria, and it wont work..

the water coming out of the coil should read zero NO3...if there is NO3 coming out you have to slow the drip rate...slowing the drip rate will allow more dwell time for the bacteria requiring O2 to strip the water of it, thus allowing the NO3 eating bacteria to colonize further up the tube before entering the pail.

any air entering the pail will ruin the coils ability to process NO3...

depending where and how you routed the effluent line from the pail you may need a vent to purge the pail of N2 gas that is built up by the bacteria doing their job...