DEnitrator Vs WAter changes.

Any comments on the above?
ANyone got success with DIY denitrator?

Actually many of us do partial water changes regularly without realising that we're replacing depleted minerals and trace elements and removing nitrates from the tank water.

This is not advisable for a large tank as the tap water contains a significant amount of trace elements and potentially harmful chemicals such as chlorine, heavy metals, phosphates, and even more nitrates!

In addition fluctuating water parameters such as pH and temperature that are associated with water changes can also cause undue stress on your fish.

Using a Denitrator is one of the many methods to remove or control nitrates build-up and again, there are various types of Denitrator available in the market today ie Coil, Suphur, DeniBalls.

My experience with both Coil & DeniBalls Denitrators are that they both effective in controlling nitrate and changing water is history or rather a chore of the past.

[bentong]

Originally Posted by WaterZoo

Actually many of us do partial water changes regularly without realising that we're replacing depleted minerals and trace elements and removing nitrates from the tank water.

This is not advisable for a large tank as the tap water contains a significant amount of trace elements and potentially harmful chemicals such as chlorine, heavy metals, phosphates, and even more nitrates!

In addition fluctuating water parameters such as pH and temperature that are associated with water changes can also cause undue stress on your fish.

Using a Denitrator is one of the many methods to remove or control nitrates build-up and again, there are various types of Denitrator available in the market today ie Coil, Suphur, DeniBalls.

My experience with both Coil & DeniBalls Denitrators are that they both effective in controlling nitrate and changing water is history or rather a chore of the past.

i wouldnt agree..
while a denitrator may reduce the need for water changes, we cannot stop totally..

y izzit detrimental to replace the depleted trace elements and minerals??
dun forget tt fish release hormones into the water which limits their growth..
as a control so tt they dont outgrow their environment..
thus if there is no water change, growth rates will be slower..

agreed with wat bro WaterZoo has mentioned. even your tap water has certain amount of nitrate. u may be lucky if tested without. however most of the time the tap water in singapore will contain certain amount of phosphate n nitrate. the cleanest water will be Reverse Osmosis (RO) water. however its expensive.

high NO3 in freshwater will be toxic. however the same high amount of NO3 in salt water will be many more times intensified. the easier and cost effective way to reduce high NO3 is to do a water change. we are not considering the use of chemical means to remove NO3 here yet. also like for some bro they may find tat water change for their extremely large tank of water is too expensive. it will even cost more for salt water. tats why ppl resort to using a de-nitrator to keep the NO3 in a safe acceptable level.

the key to a successful de-nitrator is to cultivate the non-anaerobic good bacteria to process our tank water, in order to "eat up" the NO3. these good bacteria lives in oxygen free environment. the kind of filtration we normally use is oxygen rich. good news is tat for a matured system like tis our NH3/4, NO2 is always negligible. bad news is tat our NO3 is super high due to the end product of anearobic bacteria converting the NH3/4 and NO2 to NO3 and the process stop there. tats why we have to maintain our tank by water change.

for my freshwater aro tank, i've lots of stems n roots plants to naturally remove the excess nitrate. for my marine tank, i've successfully diy-ed a de-nitrator to cope with the NO3. its a slow process for any denitrator to be matured. so pls dun expect immediate reduction of NO3. denitrator works the same for fresh n salt water just tat it needs different cycling. here is the link of my diy denitrator. enjoy bros .
http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/sh...ght=denitrator

bro archie2000 can explained why the rubber tubing must coil into the denitrator?

Correct me if I am wrong as this is my understanding why the rubber tubing has to coil all the way down to the bottom of the denitrator.

The tank water (rich in oxygen) is pump into the denitrator and is forced to go down spirally all the way to the bottom where it goes out to the center of the unit where the tubing ends.

The water will slowly goes up to the top via all the bioballs which has all the BB replicating themselves before the water goes back to the tank via the sump or directly to the tank.

In other words ie as the water slowly goes down, oxygen is consumed by the bacteria which is the same type as those in the filter system. But somehow I think, maybe 1/2 or 3/4 down the tubing, all the oxygen is consumed and another kind of bacteria takes over the task of converting NO3 to nitrogen gas.

This is the bacteria (anaerobic) which consumes nitrates and they will replicate themselves on the bioballs surface area where they consume all remaining nitrate.

As a result the water returning to the sump or tank is NO3 free.

Sorry for too lor sor

bro thank you for your explanation
but instead of coiling to the bottom can't it go directly to the bottom?
any different?
i understand that for it to work
the flow must be slow
so if i control the flowrate to be slow
and put the rubber inlet tube directly to the bottom (instead of coiling)
and the outlet tube to the top
is there any different?
sorry not trying to be funny
but trying to understand the system better
may try to DIY one
but how well it work for freshwater
i heard that it work better for saltwater

Can't goes straight down as there is still oxygen in the water and the 2nd stage of bacteria will not exists ie the anaerobic bacteria

They can only exists in an oxygen free environment where they can "consumes" the nitrates and that is the reason why we need to coil the tubing all the way down to the bottom of the unit.

[LostBoI]

wats the denitrator looks like?...never see one before

[whtan1]

Originally Posted by WaterZoo

Can't goes straight down as there is still oxygen in the water and the 2nd stage of bacteria will not exists ie the anaerobic bacteria

They can only exists in an oxygen free environment where they can "consumes" the nitrates and that is the reason why we need to coil the tubing all the way down to the bottom of the unit.

if u are to look at those commercially available denitrator, most do not have coiling tube.
as mentioned the oxygen depletion process comes from the grooming the bacteria at the lower end of the denitrator and then leaving the upper half oxygen free when going thru the maze of bioballs. as such i think it is possible. i am using one modified one.

the art is still water change. denitrator only slow the process says a week or so depending on yr bioloads