Thanks for posting all your findings guys, this is a project I would love to try out as soon as I get some time!
Water Quality
- Thread starter jaws7777
- Start date
So I have been using denitrate for a little over a year. Its in a 2 little fishes phosban reactor 150. Full to top. I was feeding it off of two more daisy chained together with a maxijet1200 feeding it with a foam prefilter. The two before it were fluidized sand beds, 1st one full 2nd half full and the output from 2nd went to a "T" and was directed either to the tank or to the Denitrate reactor. I ran 20 something gph through the denitrate. It worked. The sand bed was a PIA but I think it is or something before it is integral to making it work. I think you need something to help deoxygenate the incoming water. When I got tired of the sand I tied it into my canister filter but saw a rise in nitrates could have been from increased bioload but I took it off line and left it in a bucket of tank water for about 2 weeks while I pondered what to do next. I "cleaned" it up and reinstalled it saw a small decrease in nitrate about 2 weeks later and it held for a bit 2-3 months then nitrates started to rise again. So time to rework it again.
Now I have had plants in the tank since day 1 and will continue to keep them, aquatic plants really don't do much for nitrate disposal I like the look. I had hoped they would eat up the trates like no ones business.....not going to happen. If I were to keep my bioload and plants the same and start using co2 I would see a decrease in trates. I'm not a chemist or a biologist I sell auto parts. I don't know all of the factors involved in why that is but what Ive found out also is that terrestrial plants are far better at trate removal because its easier for them to use co2 from their surroundings then aquatic plants. There are plants that are really good at using what co2 is available to them with little light. What they take in co2 helps them grow, they need energy to do that and trates is where they get that. Trate removal! I set up an overhead sump with a pothos plant my wife was torturing to death in the living room. It really is a resilient plant. I cut off what still had leaves and stuck the cut end in the water said what the heck and pulled the "plant" out of the dirt, washed the roots and trimmed them a bit. I then removed the pieces that had been mummified and stuck the roots in the water. The root piece has no leaves at this point. The pieces with leaves have no roots at this point. That was about 2 months ago. All the leave pieces have roots now the root piece is starting to sprout leaves and a random stem that started with neither has the beginning of both. I should also note that I have the denitrate hooked back up also coming from the feed pump for the overhead, again 20ish gph. As of two weeks ago with weekly w/c of 50% (I'm ashamed of this) my trates were at something in the 80ppm range. When I had saltwater I never was above 10ppm. As of today I'm at about 20ppm that was before the w/c. Ive noticed the pothos has really started to grow so my guess is this is where the trates are going. When I set up the 180 I'm gonna pull the denitrate off again to help seed the 180. I will see if that has any effect on trate lvls before I move any fish over. I know long drawn out and probably got all kinds of deficiencies, but hope this is useful to someone.
Now I have had plants in the tank since day 1 and will continue to keep them, aquatic plants really don't do much for nitrate disposal I like the look. I had hoped they would eat up the trates like no ones business.....not going to happen. If I were to keep my bioload and plants the same and start using co2 I would see a decrease in trates. I'm not a chemist or a biologist I sell auto parts. I don't know all of the factors involved in why that is but what Ive found out also is that terrestrial plants are far better at trate removal because its easier for them to use co2 from their surroundings then aquatic plants. There are plants that are really good at using what co2 is available to them with little light. What they take in co2 helps them grow, they need energy to do that and trates is where they get that. Trate removal! I set up an overhead sump with a pothos plant my wife was torturing to death in the living room. It really is a resilient plant. I cut off what still had leaves and stuck the cut end in the water said what the heck and pulled the "plant" out of the dirt, washed the roots and trimmed them a bit. I then removed the pieces that had been mummified and stuck the roots in the water. The root piece has no leaves at this point. The pieces with leaves have no roots at this point. That was about 2 months ago. All the leave pieces have roots now the root piece is starting to sprout leaves and a random stem that started with neither has the beginning of both. I should also note that I have the denitrate hooked back up also coming from the feed pump for the overhead, again 20ish gph. As of two weeks ago with weekly w/c of 50% (I'm ashamed of this) my trates were at something in the 80ppm range. When I had saltwater I never was above 10ppm. As of today I'm at about 20ppm that was before the w/c. Ive noticed the pothos has really started to grow so my guess is this is where the trates are going. When I set up the 180 I'm gonna pull the denitrate off again to help seed the 180. I will see if that has any effect on trate lvls before I move any fish over. I know long drawn out and probably got all kinds of deficiencies, but hope this is useful to someone.
Not long and drawn out at all. Thx for thr explanation on your set up.
How much denitrate were you using ? How many fish were contributing to the bio load ?
About 300 grams. Id have to say around 15-20 6 polys 2 geos 1 ctenopoma were the big ones. I have the most right now and trates are the lowest they have been in 8-12 months.
Do you attribute the reduction to the pothos or the denitrate filter ?
Collectively we all need to figure a way to extend the life of the media.....maybe more mech
Collectively we all need to figure a way to extend the life of the media.....maybe more mech
Angelphish
get yours up and running yet ? Do you plan to continually dose biodigest or just a jump start ?
J
jaws7777
have you checked out the rid-x thread? That's not what its called but the thread about using probiotics? I just started that one. I spent so much money when I was in salt. I used all the fancy equipment and additives, biopellets, microbactor, prodibio products, huge super powered skimmer, all worked just expensive. I'm being monitored closer now so I have to and want to find a more cost effective way of doing things. Thinking the rid-x might be a good replacement bacteria product...? As for changing out the media (denitrate) I was told to just vigorously scrub and rinse it in tank water with your hands or a dedicated brush don't replace it.
Yup that one of the best threads on this site, been dosing ridx for a few yrs now. It 100% works in breaking down waste but i never noticed nitrate reduction with it. I havent dosed it since i started messing around with all of these nitrate gadgets though. Im not sure how it will impact the aneribic bb. Once its established i'll start dising again.
The idea of having to replace the media cme from another member who said after x amount od months (he never said how many) no amount of cleaning help restore the media. I dont mind nuying media2 or 3 times a yr.
Im really curious about the biodigest type stuff. I believe it works but am curious as to what happens when dosing it is stopped.
Not yet. I still need to order a couple things. I'm going to use ptc fittings rather than barbed.
I just plan to use Biodigest as a jump start. It's too expensive to dose constantly, even if it's only every other week.
