5 GPD reverse flow 4" pumice bed, nitrate buster, denitratification

[markstrimaran]

Hi. This is my first post ever about aquariums.
For starters I have a formal education in waste water treatment. I have recently got back into fish keeping after 20 years of absence. I have 10 years of old school behind me.
Well I once had a 20 g long that used crushed lava rock. That was nitrate free. Lightly stocked and the water fleas kept the fish fed.
So recently I cleaned up the old ,Oceanic trickle filter model 75. Plumbed it into a 30 gallon Oceanic. Yes way over kill.
Then went to my local fish store to get some substrate. When I encountered the generational gap in 1001 to plumb a fish tank. Well a lot of misinformation so I thought I will experiment a bit.
Which is why the pvc pipeing is kind of crazy in the pictures.

To get to the point. Water changes are not required to remove nitrates from a fresh water aquarium.

Nitrogen gas production from nitrate does not smell, any worse than a well maintained cat litter box.

300ppm nitrate can be absorbed in less than a week. Maybe even faster with a starter culture.

I am open too new ideas, like purigen and led lights.
Well my budget is limited so I like DIY things.

My 30 gallon setup.
Undergravel filter plates.
Crushed pumice 50/50 course sand. 4" deep
Hob filter for 55 gallon. Used as UG filter vacume, and drip siphon head.

Oceanic trickle filter at 400 gph.
DIY 1 gpd anarobic nitrogen gas bubbler

The UG is reverse flowed at about 5 gpd. Fast drip. With a siphon from the HOB.

The model 75. Provides full oxygen and bacterial filtration if the UG filter crashes from experimental dosing with vodka, sugar.

Water is siphoned from 30 into pump. Then into sump. That is above tank. Note. Sump has baffle to prevent other tank from flooding.

 

[boldtogether]

Welcome to MFK!!!
A fellow waste water dude!!
Be prepared for the questions my friend...uncovention will be scrutinized, but inovation, even old school is very welcome here!!

 

[boldtogether]

Hi. This is my first post ever about aquariums.
For starters I have a formal education in waste water treatment. I have recently got back into fish keeping after 20 years of absence. I have 10 years of old school behind me.
Well I once had a 20 g long that used crushed lava rock. That was nitrate free. Lightly stocked and the water fleas kept the fish fed.
So recently I cleaned up the old ,Oceanic trickle filter model 75. Plumbed it into a 30 gallon Oceanic. Yes way over kill.
Then went to my local fish store to get some substrate. When I encountered the generational gap in 1001 to plumb a fish tank. Well a lot of misinformation so I thought I will experiment a bit.
Which is why the pvc pipeing is kind of crazy in the pictures.

To get to the point. Water changes are not required to remove nitrates from a fresh water aquarium.

Nitrogen gas production from nitrate does not smell, any worse than a well maintained cat litter box.

300ppm nitrate can be absorbed in less than a week. Maybe even faster with a starter culture.

I am open too new ideas, like purigen and led lights.
Well my budget is limited so I like DIY things.

My 30 gallon setup.
Undergravel filter plates.
Crushed pumice 50/50 course sand. 4" deep
Hob filter for 55 gallon. Used as UG filter vacume, and drip siphon head.

Oceanic trickle filter at 400 gph.
DIY 1 gpd anarobic nitrogen gas bubbler

The UG is reverse flowed at about 5 gpd. Fast drip. With a siphon from the HOB.

The model 75. Provides full oxygen and bacterial filtration if the UG filter crashes from experimental dosing with vodka, sugar.

Water is siphoned from 30 into pump. Then into sump. That is above tank. Note. Sump has baffle to prevent other tank from flooding.
View attachment 1150747 View attachment 1150748 View attachment 1150747 View attachment 1150747 View attachment 1150748

You mentioned water fleas....how do you culture them and do you keep them in the tank and not the sump?

 

[markstrimaran]

You mentioned water fleas....how do you culture them and do you keep them in the tank and not the sump?

I have a small current population. That came with some lake rocks covered in hair alge. I am culturing some from eggs also.
I have built up a population of micro organisms, cilliapods, planaria, and the 1 gpd anaerobic sub tank

 

[markstrimaran]

I have a small current population. That came with some lake rocks covered in hair alge. I am culturing some from eggs also.
I have built up a population of micro organisms, cilliapods, planaria, and the 1 gpd anaerobic sub tank

Opps sorry about the break.....
I am experimenting with the anaerobic sub tank that is inside the sump too feed the bigger microorganism. The anaerobic bacteria can double their population quite rapidly. The overflow of this drips into a 5 gallon pool inside the model 75. That I have a water flea population in.

 

[rodger]

I have been trying to figure out a way to do a denitrator for my 240. Seems space intensive.

 

[markstrimaran]

I have been trying to figure out a way to do a denitrator for my 240. Seems space intensive.

In my HO it could be done in a 20 gallon sump, tank. A refugium for bacteria.

 

[markstrimaran]

The tank has been going for about 6 months. I fishless cycled it. Stocked it with local creek chubs. Operated it as a conventional UG until the nitrates started building. Then added the anaerobic tank when nitrates hit 200 ppm.
The 1 Gpd anaerobic tank was seeded with a culture of local river bacteria fauna. In a high nitrate Iowa fertilizer watershed.
With pumice rock from oregon. The jars were dosed with 1 tsp white sugar. These bacteria can multiply double in an hour. Every day they would test like 10 ppm nitrate. I would drain the water out leaving the pint of pumice. Then refilling with 200ppm tank water. Enriched with 1/4 fertilizer stick, for house plants. In every test the nitrates were less than 20 in 24hs. The water milky white with bacteria. And no odor.
H2s was only noticeable after nitrates are depleted. After 2 days unopened a slight rotten egg odor will start

The 1 Gpd two stage nitrogen tank contains a gallon of water and a gallon of pumice, lava, and sand. A steady drip of 60 dpm. Keeps it from smelling and at 0 ppm. At 30 dpm it goes septic at 200ppm nitrate. At 120 dpm it leaves 20ppm no3/no2 mix.
Note my river creek chubs were saved from the bait well.
200 nitrate ppm is less prone to crashing. If you think of nitrate as oxygen. It is what the bugs oxidize to survive. When it runs out they go for the sulfate. Which smells.
At say 20 ppm no3. The bacteria need a very porous substrate. As the low water flow would create septic pockets void of oxygen or nitrate leaving only sulfate. The porous substrate with microscopic pores, let's the oxygen content of the water circulating, remain high enough to prevent septic. But low enough that nitrate is tapped into.
The bacteria need a carbon source also. The amount is dependant upon the availability of nitrate. The higher the nitrate the more sugar you can add.
Adding sugar into an aerobic substrate just makes the water cloud and reduces the oxygen until nitrates are used. The smelly stuff only starts when the nitrates are gone.
So at 10 ppm I throttle up the dripping to keep the oxygen up as the same bacteria can burn oxygen or nitrate. The 1 gpd is the fine tuner. The full siphon vs the overflow.

The main tank substrate is the over flow. With the same pumice enriched bacteria. Scrubbing the water for every bit of oxygen and carbon. Until the carbon runs out. Then they sit idle.

This colony can double faster than you can do a 25% water change. In less than 72 hours 200ppm no3 will be vaporized.
The water under the , undergravel filter plate becomes anaerobic, dosed with sugar the BOD, is raised. As the slow drip 5gpd in a 30g tank. Filters up thru the substrate. The nitrates are consumed for the 02 they contain..
As the bacteria overrun the tank. The aerobic critters run for air. The plantains start a migration up the glass. This is a cycle that most people have not attemped. Just like the ammonia peak, the nitrite peak, the nitrate peak, and the nitrogen gas peak.
At healthy ppm the flow is increased and the anaerobic activity is done inside the substrate.

So the external sump, HOB provides oxygen for the aerobic life as the substrate, turns over. Most lakes do this every spring.
So that leaves a lot of food for the routifers, water fleas, cilliapods. Assuming they don't get sucked out in a 75% water change. In which case a diatomaceous filter will clear things up.
A 500 gph circulation on a 30 gallon clears up the water nicely, With poly filters.

 

[asteele.19]

That's a crap ton of info!

 

[markstrimaran]

That's a crap ton of info!

I am not finished just yet.