Best DIY nitrate 'filter'?

[00rollins]

If you go for it def offer much less that one looks like it was modified its missing the inlet pvc tubes like these in mine and the prefilter box, it looks gutted

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[Kaiden]

Ooh, I didn't even notice that. Thanks for the head's up! Can I still use it even though it's been gutted? Would it cause issues?

By the way, I've been thinking, if the Purigen helps lower my nitrates...would it be worth still making a plant sump?

 

[00rollins]

You could use it but def not worth 90 maybe 40, the one with the bio wheel is worth it for 90-100, Id offer 75 and see what they say thet were askin 125. But there will be more

Its up to you, youd need a light and any dead decaying plant matter would cause more nitrite/nitrate buildup, I like plants for looks If your fish dont eat them you could put floating plants in the tank that would make it esier to see any portions that would need to be removed and you get dual use astetically pleasing & filteration. I cant use them in my tank because my hatwegi and zonatus tear them up and eat them, thats the only reason I will put them in the sump. You could fit alot more in the tank than the sump also.

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[Kaiden]

I originally wanted to put plants in my tank but I have SDs and they just make a salad bar out of it. But for the sump, I was thinking of using terrestrial plants like photos and arrowheads plus maybe some water sprites or duckweed. That way it's easier to trim when I notice they are dying off.

But now that I'm adding Purigen, would it be counter productive to keep plants? Won't the plants starve since Purigen is taking all the impurities?

 

[00rollins]

The plants would leach ot some nitates then purigen will get the rest dont think it will be an issue one way or the other, I found the best price on purigen to be at affordable aquatics, if you find it cheaper let me know. Thanks

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[Kaiden]

Thanks!

Not sure how much it is at Affordable Aquatics but I paid $85 for a 2L Purigen at BigAls.

 

[alexanian]

I'm sorry it took me so long to reply Arrowhead plant is Nephtytis, I attached a pic too so u can see it.



Other plants u can use are spider plant and bamboo ( although they do not take alot of nitrates, so it'd b more of a decorative planting ) U don't need substrate just let the roots hang in the water and prvide water flow and light. both photos and arrowheads need only low lighting so no need to go all crazy with lights

The refugium design looks fine as far as I can tell, u really don't need anything special since I've grown photos in a jar with water. Just give it a couple of weeks, they won't grow instantly.

And yes I meant 3 to 4x per hour of ur main tank, so that would make 450g per hour, although i'm not sure ur 10g sump can take it cuz that's 7.5g per minute, so I guess u should just keep the turnover 1x per hour i.e 2.5g per minute. An easy way to determine if ur overflow rate is good is filling a 5g bucket and see how much it fills in a minute or how much it takes to fill it up and calculate from there. ( example: if it takes 2 minutes to fill it up then it's 2.5g per minute so it's 150g an hour)

 

[305phins]

Very informative

 

[Kash]

I know it's a little late, but pet mountain usually has the cheapest aquarium supplies and media from what I've seen, specially if you order over 75 bucks worth of stuff and get the free shipping.

 

[TheRealCramer]

Right off the bat I would like to vent my humble opinion that the golden rule, so to speak, of nitrate reduction is water changes. Every mainstream book, article or expert will say the best way to reduce nitrates is water changes.
My problem with that is it is wrong lol. How is it the single best? 20-50% water changes aren't going to remove 100% of the nitrates! On paper you can say they'd only reduce 20-50% of the nitrates assuming the compounds where 100% evenly spread through the water table.
20-50% is failing. That's an F and it may save your tank from a C- to a B+

That's also assuming that you didn't do a water change at the same time you cleaned your gravel and filters and kicked up some toxics and killed off some BB. And who doesn't do all this at the same time?

If you want an easy D+ or B- do water changes. They don't consume a good chunk of your weekend!

If you want an A+ go with chemical options that are more effective and easier but more expensive or an algae turf scrubber.

The A is for algae! It's so cool and cheap! If the right size/flow/growth your nitrates will be low to zero. Mine don't even read on test strips. It's the way nature filters water. I first notice spikes of nitrates, ph and overall unstableness before I even heard of them every time I took buckets of string algae out of my pond's stream. I finally figured it out. And it's the only form of filtration in the winter when the BB is supposedly dormant. Algae still grows down my waterfall and stream and keeps the water perfect.

If you're on the fence do what I did and try it out for the hell of it for a while. Won't cost more than $10 if you run it inline or already have a pump




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