Denitrators ?

[EhfiYann]

Anyone here ever had experiences with denitrators?

I guess my question is:
"How do they work?" or better "Ever had/made one that works?"

I do regular water changes on my tanks but I have this 33 Gals with two 8" albinos oscars and let me tell you: I can't change the water fast enough. My bio-filtration is quite good, no ammonia, zero nitrites. As for nitrates... I always have some!

On top of that, those oscars eat plants so I can't rely on that for nitrate removal. Could a denitrator help me (or them)?

Any comments on denitrators would be welcome.

Thanks in advance!

 

[RTR]

Nitrate titer is used not just for itself, but as an easily tested indicator of pollution levels in general - the other minerals and all the dissolved organic comounds generated in a tank for which there are no tests.

Should you get a denitrator to work (iffy), the net result is that you have lost your pollution indicator and gotten rid of one among dozens to hundreds of pollutants. In other words, you are fooling yourself.

 

[EhfiYann]

Thanks for the quick pollution lesson but with the amount of water I change, I'm pretty certain that besides Nitrates, the water is right.

I was more looking for answers that focused on HOW more than WHY.

Thanks for your help.

 

[RTR]

If there is measurable nitrate, then there are other pollutants present as well.

Denitrification will do little for the health of the fish that more/larger water changes and substrate cleaning will not do significantly better. Unless of course you have high nitrate source water, but I would guess that you did test that.

But then it also could be just that the fish are underhoused.

 

[ChicoRaton]

ditto on the nitrates being more of an indicator of the other unmeasureable pollutants in your tank. oscars are messy, and you'll always have to change a lot of water very often.

denitrators work by creating a place for anaerobic bacteria to live. they are usually filled with biomedia and water is passed through at about 1gph tops. Or they might be a very long coil. those are the two main styles.

[edit]

33 Gals with two 8" albinos oscars

You might already know this, but that is far too small for two oscars. you're going to have to practically keep a constant bucket brigade going to change enough water to keep the pollutants down. I wouldn't spend money on a denitrator. get a 90 gallon tank instead.

 

[got_nailed]

How they work?.. With a slow amount of water movement in a medium that will collect a large amount of bacteria what can happen is;
- The ammonia eating bacteria builds in the upper section.
- As it goes down the nitrite eating bacteria.
- And you guessed it it’s time for the nitrate eating bacteria.
- If the flow of water is very slow and no oxygen at this point you could get some bacteria to change the nitrates in to nitrogen gas.

The water flow would have to be about 2-4 GPh

You might want to read this posting… http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27664&highlight=sand

 

[EhfiYann]

Thanks for the pointers.

If anyone had experience building/using a denitrificator it would be quite interesting if you would like to share too.

 

[Seaman]

I use a homeade "denitrator" its a 10g refugium under my 55g tank....I have marimo balls and A LOT of green hair algae growing in the fuge, my trick is to leave the lights on 24h a day over the sump and algae will grow like MAD!!

just a FYI it doesnt hurt plants to leave the lights on all day long, when i used to grow greenhouse plants our lights were timed to never let the plants have darkness (when in the veg. state of growing) when you want flowers thats when you decrease the lighting wich stimulates that its time for flowering.

 

[DarkWolf]

Just a little off the exact topic input. 2 cents as it is.. But it still falls under your lack of plants to help balance..

This is my above tank bio filter that also makes use of plants to aid in filtration. Because I have Koi and other large fish that tend to destroy any living plant I had to move plants up top.

To see other shots of it check out this thread..
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=31551

I made it using plexi that I scored and broke to make a box by glueing it with esentually superglue, leaving a hole at the bottom right for a plexi tube to go down from. It's fed on the left from the canister filter below the tank.

Inside the box is 3 chambers. A large one to the left, filled with bio balls, some filter mat on the top where the water comes in, and the plants (ivy ATM) is pushed in between the balls.

After that chamber there is a small section just to slide a spunge into. This blocks any muck (dead alge and bacteria) from entering the last section with is where the return down spout is. The last chamber is empity ATM, but I could always place a carbon bag or two there if I needed.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Scott--