I wanted to know everyone’s experiences with nitrate reactors, do they work, are they effective. I also wanted to know if I could make one so that I could put it on the return of my canister filter and have the water pass through it that way
Nitrate reactor
- Thread starter Bertie07
- Start date
I tried it for several months. It worked in my opinion to reduce my water changes to once a month. At the end of the month was hitting about 40-60ppm. That’s with food feeding 2-3 per week and over 10plus fish in the tank, medium sized. They were fed massivore, tilapia, and cut up shrimp. The pump I used got messed up and left it go cause of family/social stuff. You can do it to a canister and gotta keep the output at a slow drip rate, drop every 1-2 seconds. I had steady flow, 15ml per hr, I’m thinking off the top of my head, and was too much I believe. But that’s my conclusion on it.
Hello; I guess the idea of using a nitrate reactor is to be able to reduce the number and amount of WC over time. If that is the goal then there may be other things to consider.
One is nitrate is the end product of the series of activities by our beloved beneficial bacteria(bb). It is also considered somewhat toxic at elevated levels.
However it is among the very few things we as home tank keepers have the tools to measure. I feel there are many other things in our tank water that accumulate which we can not measure at the present. Concentration of minerals and such due to evaporation as well as biological stuff from fish metabolism and decay products constantly taking place.
My take is having an indicator such as nitrate can be viewed as measure to help us keep on top of a decent WC schedule. I get that these other things I bring up may accumulate at much different rates than nitrates but in keeping nitrates down around 20 ppm my guess is we have a decent start at keeping our water more suitable.
A nitrate reactor may in fact keep nitrates down, but what about the other stuff?
One is nitrate is the end product of the series of activities by our beloved beneficial bacteria(bb). It is also considered somewhat toxic at elevated levels.
However it is among the very few things we as home tank keepers have the tools to measure. I feel there are many other things in our tank water that accumulate which we can not measure at the present. Concentration of minerals and such due to evaporation as well as biological stuff from fish metabolism and decay products constantly taking place.
My take is having an indicator such as nitrate can be viewed as measure to help us keep on top of a decent WC schedule. I get that these other things I bring up may accumulate at much different rates than nitrates but in keeping nitrates down around 20 ppm my guess is we have a decent start at keeping our water more suitable.
A nitrate reactor may in fact keep nitrates down, but what about the other stuff?
so you had it as a drip system more than a flow, what kinds of pump did you use and was the reactor a separate system to the filter. Also what sized reactor did you have for your tank.
The reactor isn’t to necessarily do less water changes but another method of getting rid of nitrates for the fishes benefits. I will still be doing my weekly 60-70% water changes with or without the reactor so it’s more of a backup if I can’t do water changes. Also my tap water is very high in nitrates anyway, around 30ppm so it could help lower that .
I also wanted to know If pothos was effective and whether it would be worth getting a stem or two of it
Mine was a flow and planning to get it a drip per second and then had pump issues. Never set it up after as life with a wife and kids took precedence. It was a diy thing. 4inch wide pvc and 2 ft long (I believe) from Lowe’s. Filled with pond matrix. Would make sure it’s got some filter/sponges on it as it got clogged and had to shake it up time to time to loosen it all out.
Will try one again as a buddy has a lab pump for his reef tank that he’s not using and can dial down the rate really low and slow.
I’ll have to look into building one then, what kind of flow rate would you recommend for a 125 gallons tank