ULNS - Denitrators

[b09u5]

Originally Posted by kien

I don't believe that there is such a thing. :-). There are lots of options, all of which you seem to be aware of already.

Maybe set up a poll to see which of the ones you listed seem to be the most trendy these days.

Thanks kein,

I might just take a poll. All I am really looking to know is more of what Mitch is getting at.... the drawbacks of the older denitrators. (Thanks Mitch, those are the pieces of the puzzle that I am missing - along with a few more i bet!)

So far, I hear that they can plug and cause H2S issues and power failures. Other than that, I hear they could keep Nitrates <0.05ppm. If those are the only two drawbacks, and I could solve them, ie: run effulent through GFO to remove the risk of H2S and have the intake line kept open with power (shuts down without), wouldn't that be a good thing?

Or am I a noob, over engineering/overthinking this hobby?

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by b09u5

Thanks kein,

OH NOES.

[b09u5]

Originally Posted by lastlight

OH NOES.

kIen,

My apologies.

[Reef Pilot]

If you go to my tank journal link at the bottom, you will find that I initially battled very high nitrates before finally resorting to bio pellets. Have been running with zero nitrates for about 2 years now, and have not had to open my bio pellet reactor since Nov 2012, more than a year ago.

[kien]

Originally Posted by lastlight

OH NOES.

[Reefer Rob]

Originally Posted by b09u5

Or am I a noob, over engineering/overthinking this hobby?

[monocus]

i built my own coil nitrate reactor a couple of years ago.it has clogged but i just blow it out.i'm planning on modding it so i can remove the top and change out the inner's every 6 months or so.my nitrates are 34 ppb on a hanna checker

[monocus]

sorry .034 ppm.water change every sunday(10%)

[MitchM]

Originally Posted by b09u5

...

I have tried to find out why sulfur denitrators went out of style, or never caught on in the first place. If anyone can help me figure this out, I would appreciate it. I can't find too many down sides to them, aside from having to monitor pH, dose Alk, and keeping an eye on ORP values on the aquarium and effluent as a method of monitoring the viability of the bacteria within....

b09u5,
Both coil and sulphur denitrators went out of style because they were prone to clogging or when vunerable to power failures, gave you an H2S problem.
Maintaining a slow constant flow was critical with them.
Follow the suggestions everyone else here has listed and you should be fine.

[b09u5]

So it looks like there are people that run denitrators and love them. With that said, there are lots of crack addicts too. Here is what they have to say:

http://www.maast.org/showthread.php?...hur-Denitrator

http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-...l#.UyPtzF6H_aU

Another option for nitrates seems to be mixing kalkwasser with vinegar rather than water when dosing for calcium and alkalinity. I am not sure if this would keep up on large demand systems, but it's interesting for sure.

http://www.reefscapes.net/articles/b...alkwasser.html