I was reading around and saw several guides to building coil nitrATE filters out there. These were mostly found on SW DIY sites, but it got me to wondering a few things...
Do these things actually work, and will they also work in a FW setup? Any experiences with them? What are the other ramifications of using them to the water chemistry, PWCs, and the like?
The basic design was 50-75 feet of airline tubing in a closed cylinder. The bottom of the cylinder was sealed shut, and the airline tubing coiled from the bottom to the top around the inside of the cylinder. The center of the cylinder was filled with bio-balls, and the top of the airline tubing was attached to a port on the lid of the cylinder (intake). There was also a second port at the top of the cylinder which was not attached to anything (output). Waterflow was regulated at a drip-rate (the only timed resource I saw was a drop a second). The output was then connected back into the sump/tank. The way it was described to work was that any O2 in the water was used up in the first 3/4 of the coils. After that, anaerobic (might be mixing the terminology up, the kind that doesn't need O2) bacteria would feed on the nitrATEs. Faster water flow and the O2 wouldn't be taken out of the water and the nitrate-eating bacteria couldn't form. Too little flow and you get rotten-egg smelling water (they didn't explain this too clearly). This setup, once built, would take a month or two to cycle like the rest of the bio-cycle.
So, would this work? Also, would the transparency of the cylinder make a difference (would light hitting the cylinder make a difference? Would blacking it out help keep the tubing from clogging?)?
Do these things actually work, and will they also work in a FW setup? Any experiences with them? What are the other ramifications of using them to the water chemistry, PWCs, and the like?
The basic design was 50-75 feet of airline tubing in a closed cylinder. The bottom of the cylinder was sealed shut, and the airline tubing coiled from the bottom to the top around the inside of the cylinder. The center of the cylinder was filled with bio-balls, and the top of the airline tubing was attached to a port on the lid of the cylinder (intake). There was also a second port at the top of the cylinder which was not attached to anything (output). Waterflow was regulated at a drip-rate (the only timed resource I saw was a drop a second). The output was then connected back into the sump/tank. The way it was described to work was that any O2 in the water was used up in the first 3/4 of the coils. After that, anaerobic (might be mixing the terminology up, the kind that doesn't need O2) bacteria would feed on the nitrATEs. Faster water flow and the O2 wouldn't be taken out of the water and the nitrate-eating bacteria couldn't form. Too little flow and you get rotten-egg smelling water (they didn't explain this too clearly). This setup, once built, would take a month or two to cycle like the rest of the bio-cycle.
So, would this work? Also, would the transparency of the cylinder make a difference (would light hitting the cylinder make a difference? Would blacking it out help keep the tubing from clogging?)?
