- Joined
- May 6, 2020
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- 222
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If I was going to guess what is going on, my guess would be that the 25-30 nitrate level is the sweet spot for the refugium. And if the the SD lowers the nitrate a certain amount,(the bacteria may also use ammonia) it also slows the algae growth in the refugium, and the algae take up less nitrate. Maybe your SD can take the nitrate level below 10, but it would be tricky because of the refugium. Well, at least the nitrate level is staying at 30 or below.My assumption is that there are certain things in the water that we can't test for that prevent these things from working or they are extremely in-efficient. After adjusting to 35ml per minute my nitrates are starting to rise out of the effluent (after 5 days) and not lower. 15ml per minute is my sweet spot and it's just not going to cut it for a 300g tank. The sulfur denitrator has been online for about 7-8 months now so it's not like I'm being impatient.
Verdict: Wasted my money, I would need about 10-15 of these things to make a dent in my nutrients and since carbon dosing and water changes don't lower nitrates I have to live with them. I'm going to take it offline and throw it away as it's taking space...thankfully it was only a $280 mistake. Lesson learned, stop trying to use garbage equipment and hacks to lower nutrients and just live with them.