Deltec Nitrate Reactor

[earthstudent]

I will try to get a pic tonight and post it tomorrow.
The one on my puffer tank is under a home built unfinished cabinet so I don't have problems at the moment with humidity down there as it is not fully enclosed.
You can enclose the algae scrubber. People have built enclosed units. Depending on your tank design you could even put it above the tank. I have an above the tank design that I am using on a 75g tank. It is basically a stream that runs directly above the tank, my sump pumps up to the "algae stream" which lets the water flow in a 5" wide channel that runs the length of the tank that grows the algae and drains directly into the tank. And a 4' shop light sits on top of it. I will try to get pics of it tonight and post tomorrow. All the scrubbers I have are build with mostly scrap stuff that I had lying around and did not cost me much. I have built some nicer units for other people. If you can work with PCV, lighting and acrylic than you can build a nice enclosed scrubber.

I have noticed in fresh water tanks, it takes a while (sometimes a few months) to start growing good strong thick green algae (this may very with your lights). You will grow brown algae at first. Salt water I have found grows green algae faster. The green algae is preferred IMO as it is thicker and stronger and does a better job of filtering as it is more hair like and has allot of surface area to contact the water. I built the scrubber stream on my 75g out of scrap acrylic I had laying around. The pump was already there for my sump return and I just have a 4' shop light I had on top of it, so it cost me $0.

At this point it is just a test and if it works out good, than I will build a nicer looking one. This is the first one I have built in this type of configuration and the water flow is not as fast as the other type I have built so I am still waiting to see how it does. It has reduced the nitrates but it has not cleared the water as well as the other designs at this point. But I have found the green algae does a better job all around and it is just starting to grow some green algae.

If you run an open algae scrubber than you will have more water evaporation due to the nature of the water having more contact with the air. This can be a good thing as an algae scrubber will increase oxygen levels in the water. The down side is the extra evaporation. I have not built an enclosed design but it should work just the same but with less evaporation and it may not add as much additional oxygen to the water. The one I have on top my 75g would be very easy to enclose.

Is your tank 1000L? So about 264g? Can you post a pic of your tank. The top of the tank and how the hood is designed and under the stand.

 

[earthstudent]

Here are the pics.

Puffer tank (55g). I do not clean the glass except for the front panel as I was trying to see if the scrubber helped with algae in the tank. I found it does help but has not eliminated it. Although it might if I cleaned it and started form clean panels. That is what I am going to do next. Water is extremely clear in that tank. The crap all over the bottom is dieing moss. I had some in there to see what salinity level it could handle and it is dieing off. I need to vacuum it out.

This is the sump. Pretty basic home built sump. Notice the algae growth on the scrubber pads due to the light, as well as the algae growth down in the sump. The front light fixture is something I just rigged up the back one is just a normal dome clamp light. Bulbs are 13W (75W or 100W equivalent, can't remember) 6400k compact florescent from Menards.

Close up of the scrubber. Notice a good sheet of water flow over the algae.

This is a close up of the algae just after I shut the water flow off. This is nice thick algae. This is what I like to see.

Here is the top of the 75g with the above the tank scrubber stream. The aluminum lights are custom lights I just through together so I could try using 6400k compact florescent lights. The shop light behind those is the light for the scrubber.

Here is a shot of the scrubber steam. It is mostly still just growing brown algae but is getting some good size patches of green algae staring. Those are the darker looking spots. I just put the rocks there to hold down the plastic canvas sheets (craft stores, I got mine at Waly world) as they had a tendency to float and the water would run under them and I think that is why it took this scrubber so long to start growing good green algae as most of the water flow was under the sheet were the light was not getting.

close up of the water going to the scrubber. This is just a trial setup so don't judge to harshly on the jerry rigging.

This is where the water exits the stream into the tank.

The only problem I am having is that the light is above the scrubber which is above the tank and is making the tank look green. This could be solved by using black acrylic or painting it so light does not go through it. Don't mind the large PVC pipes in the tank. This tank was setup completely different and had an alligator in it. The large PVC lines go to a pool pump filter under the tank. It was used as filtering but now I just use it for water circulation. It has a bypass so it is not running full throttle in the tank as it flows about 1500g/hr. It only runs for half hour every couple hours and does a good job of stirring up fish waist so the overflow can get it to the filter.

Let me know if you have any questions. It may take a few days for me to answer as I am going on a little vacation this weekend and may not have much time to check on this thread.

 

[Just Toby]

Cool, thanks for taking the time to dig out and post the pics etc...they are really useful.

The first one looks to be growing a massive amount of Algae! I assume you strip half off per week?

If I go ahead with my fish house then I will build one large one to run the system but I am still concerned about the humidity in my cabinet from an open scrubber (I paid nearly £3000 to have the stand built in real light oak to match my furniture)

My deltec is now reliably producing 0-5ppm water at the exit of the reactor and I am slowly ramping up the flow rate. I now have the redox probe settled and monitoring and I am hovering around -50 to +50 mv. (the goal is -170)

At -170 it will produce 1.5litres per hour of nitrate free water which will bring my 1000l down to zero and maintain that below 10ppm if the manufacturers figures can be relied upon and I have no reason to doubt deltec.

I would be interested to see how you get on with the tank top one.

 

[earthstudent]

Cool, thanks for taking the time to dig out and post the pics etc...they are really useful.

No problem. I think this is a great way to filter your water. I think it is a very natural way to do it. I would like to see more people trying them.



The first one looks to be growing a massive amount of Algae! I assume you strip half off per week?

Ya, that one is well established and doing very well. I actually only scape the algae every other month or so. I did this to find out if it would still work at removing nitrates. My Nitrates have never been over 10ppm so it is working just fine. I do not have much of a bioload even though the puffers are messy eaters. I would say, with a heavier bioload you may need to scrape the algae more often.



I am still concerned about the humidity in my cabinet from an open scrubber (I paid nearly £3000 to have the stand built in real light oak to match my furniture)

I think an enclosed scrubber would not be that hard to build and should work out just fine in your situation. But I do understand your concern.



I would be interested to see how you get on with the tank top one.

I will try to keep you updated on the progress of this setup.

 

[Energy]

I agree with earthstudent about the algae scrubber. They are an excellent means of filtration and I use a similiar method on my 1700 gallon stingray river biotope. Instead of Algae I have 2 dedicated drip walls growing aquatic plants. More info on the system can be found here:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=329022

So far after almost a year my viewing pane stays almost totally algae free.

 

[ar0wan]

Naow that's a highjack.

 

[Just Toby]

Thank you both for the extra info and a big WOW for the biotope, it looks amazing, I will have a good read up of the whole thread in the next few days.

 

[Energy]

Naow that's a highjack.

Sorry-no intention of hijacking.

 

[ar0wan]

not you man. Just looking for some info
on deNitrators and it's not in this thread
mostly just info on farming algae
which is nice

 

[Just Toby]

not you man. Just looking for some info
on deNitrators and it's not in this thread
mostly just info on farming algae
which is nice

What do you need to know....you can rely on the fact that I have years of research and trial n error to share.


Update: my reactor is now sending out 1 litre per hour of nitrate free water and running -140mv redox which is very close to the -170 target, once this is at -170 and 1.5 litres per hour it will be at max capacity and enough to keep 1000 litres free of nitrate on a stable and permanent basis.

I am still backing up with my ion exchange resin but this will come off line within 3 months as that is the maturity time for the reactor.