My journey with a Donovan Nitrate Destroyer

[56longroof]

I've decided to try and make my reef tank as hands off as possible and also to save some money in the process. The first step was getting rid of filter socks and use one of Printed Reefs filter floss "holders" that replaces the socks. The next step is hopefully a double bonus. Im wanting to reduce the nitrate and phosphate and by doing so switch to bi weekly water changes. To accomplish this I first tried a algea reactor. No luck with that at all. I can grow sps pretty good but for some reason macro algea will not gow on my system. Even with dosing reccomended products to boost growth. That led me to discovering the Donovan nitrate destroyer. So, after a couple trips to Home Depot and ordering too much bio media I built it and put it online. For the construction I used 3" pvc,a couple T's,and pipe caps on one end and slip fittings with threaded plugs for the top. Pretty basic stuff putting it together. The only fancy thing I did was drill and tap two holes for the inlet and outlet. I saw other builds and they just used silicon to seal up around a hose for this but I tend to over build and also that method may be a cause of concern down the road. So threaded hose barbs it was. So far the results are showing promise. After 9 days I tested the discharge water and there is a .06 difference in phosphate and 10 ppm in nitrates. All Im doing is dosing 15 mls of vinegar and 25 mls of pnsb into it. I stopped carbon dosing the main display a few days ago. Hopefully in a couple more weeks I will see the numbers drop in the main display also.

 

[JGT]

Nice! Looks a lot like mine.

 

[56longroof]

Nice! Looks a lot like mine.

Your was the design I went off of. How long have you been running it? Still effective?

 

[JGT]

Your was the design I went off of. How long have you been running it? Still effective?

Several months. Actually, just checked pic date. More like 7-8 months. Yes, very. Takes a little to dial it in but once you do it’s rock solid.

 

[56longroof]

Several months. Actually, just checked pic date. More like 7-8 months. Yes, very. Takes a little to dial it in but once you do it’s rock solid.

What did you have to do to dial it in?

 

[JGT]

What did you have to do to dial it in?

Can go 1 of 2 ways. Increase/decrease carbon dosing or flow.

 

[JGT]

Though I’m having an interesting phenomena that may or may not be related to my DND. Gotta ask RHF.

 

[56longroof]

Though I’m having an interesting phenomena that may or may not be related to my DND. Gotta ask RHF.

Please share

 

[JGT]

Please share

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/donovan-nitrate-destroyer-acting-like-ca-reactor.1156879/

 

[56longroof]

Week 2 of the nitrate destroyer. The nitrate in my tank has went from 30+ ppm to 15 ppm. I haven't checked phosphate levels yet but so far Im really liking this thing. I bumped up carbon dosing to 15 mls twice a day and stopped the pnsb when I ran out. Dont really see a need to continue with it.

 

[56longroof]

This is week 4 since I added the DND. The effluent coming out of the DND is 0 ppm with a Salifert test kit. The tank is 5 ppm right now from a high of 30+ ppm. Little to no effect on phosphate though. I didnt really think it would but was hopeful. Im going to start bi weekly water changes and see where everything is after 2 weeks. My end goal is once a month water changes just to replenish some trace elements that AFR may not. To date Im extremely happy with it.