How much is too much...

[sincebeen]

ahh i see what you mean, so essentially my attempt at a denitrifying filter was nothing more than an actual nitrate factory!

No, it does what it was designed to do, nitrification. And since you have the aquaclay in there too, you are able to do some denitrification.

And you will only have as much nitrates as you have ammo(fish poop) and nitrite. Don't think that bio media will continue to make nitrates without itself having food. virtually every aquarium filter is a nitrate factory by design.

You should post a picture of your design. It sounds like it might be different than what I've been picturing.



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[4D3]

I need to qualify that the air stone does not add oxygen to the water, so placement of the air stone doesn't matter.

The gas exchange/surface agitation that is occurring because of the air stone is what I meant by doing more harm than good for denitrification.

well based on this is it a bad idea to have air stoned in the tank at all?

 

[sincebeen]

well based on this is it a bad idea to have air stoned in the tank at all?

Nooooo!

Just bad in a device meant for denitrification.

 

[4D3]

No, it does what it was designed to do, nitrification. And since you have the aquaclay in there too, you are able to do some denitrification.

And you will only have as much nitrates as you have ammo(fish poop) and nitrite. Don't think that bio media will continue to make nitrates without itself having food. virtually every aquarium filter is a nitrate factory by design.

You should post a picture of your design. It sounds like it might be different than what I've been picturing.



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Here are a few pics:

Here you can see the 2 canisters i have used, the one on the left is HEL-X moving bed, the brown on the right is Aquaclay F4-10 tightly packed



You can see them slightly better here:



this is a closeup of the vibrating bed, you can see how tightly packed i have it, there is virtually no movement:



My GT and Festea say HI!!

 

[sincebeen]

I can't see the second picture.

That GT is awesome!

And that filter is not what I was envisioning at all. I would think that's a great design because it's narrow, enclosed, packed with high surface media and has a slow flow rate. I'd say that's one of the best practical setups I've seen and certainly has the ability for denitrification. Lower it, hide it with some plants and leave it.



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[4D3]

I can't see the second picture.

That GT is awesome!

And that filter is not what I was envisioning at all. I would think that's a great design because it's narrow, enclosed, packed with high surface media and has a slow flow rate. I'd say that's one of the best practical setups I've seen and certainly has the ability for denitrification. Lower it, hide it with some plants and leave it.



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Thanks for that, the gt is a big boy!

I am looking for a better container at the moment, it looks ugly lol

I have been looking at making it out of clear pvc with a screw top! Or a container like my moving bed filter,a round screw top container with a really weak air pump!

I am correct in thinking, my moving bed is designed with high water flow to give loads of oxygen for ammonia removing the vibrating bed was designed with tight packed media, and very slow water movement for nitrate removal.

Do you think I should make a how too? (If I honest I looked at a few designs in real life and thought they were a bit shoddy so when I did mine I address all the issues I saw with the fluid mechanics from a purely dynamic point of view! (I studied this at uni)



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