Poor Man's Nutrients Control - Donovan's Nitrate Destroyer

[im_jeremy5]

Pouring out a Dr. Tim's for Donovan... Wow. Read this entire thread over the past few evenings, great stuff.

This thing seems pretty amazing. I have a few questions, hopefully they're not all insanely stupid:

1) This seems a lot like cycling a new tank to get through the nitrogen cycle and populate the same bacteria in your live rock/sand/filter. What is the actual difference? Could one use this system to jumpstart a cycle?

2) How many people have been able to quit dosing eventually, once the colonies are established?

3) Similarly, how many of you are no longer using a skimmer? I plan to eventually scale up greatly, and that would be a huge cost savings.

4) Also similarly, how many of you stopped using a refugium with this thing? It sounds like it's robbing the chaeto/algae of nutrients anyway, which is the point -- to export those nitrates, right? I also wonder how this affects the growth/population of pods, although adding the beneficial bacteria may actually help with that.

I guess, finally, other than the steel wool, how have others manage phosphates once you've had this thing up and running for a while?

I only got an answer to #1: When you cycle a new tank you are establishing mostly aerobic bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrates. With this you are establishing a different type of anaerobic bacteria that takes that nitrate and turns it into nitrogen gas. This does have an aerobic zone so if you matured one on a developed tank and moved it to a new tank it would probably jump start the cycle. But the main point of this device is denitrification, not notification.

 

[Zan's Aquatica]

Hello,

Can i create this for my all-in-one (filter chambers in the back), stumbles tank? if so, how would I modify it? this was very challenging to understand for someone who is new (again)

thanks for taking time to offer details <3

 

[Afterburner]

I finally had some time to work on the suitcase Reactor. I’m making progress, but didn’t have enough media or seed bacteria to seal it up and start the process. Here is a pic of the progress so far.

it is approximately 12”x12”x3”. I am not going to completely fill the chambers so I can shake it later if it clogs.

 

[Afterburner]

The rest of the media came in today and I found a clear piece of Acrylic that I could cut to fit as the front wall. I also have a black acrylic piece to put over it when in operation to provide darkness for the bacterial (not sure if it matters). I figured it would be nice to see what’s going on inside if it gets a clog. Now just waiting for the seed bacteria and then I will fire it up and check for leaks.

 

[Ivan L]

The rest of the media came in today and I found a clear piece of Acrylic that I could cut to fit as the front wall. I also have a black acrylic piece to put over it when in operation to provide darkness for the bacterial (not sure if it matters). I figured it would be nice to see what’s going on inside if it gets a clog. Now just waiting for the seed bacteria and then I will fire it up and check for leaks.

Nice design!
Mine has been running succesfully for months, I have a 180g tank and the reactor is around 12 litters probably 6L of water and 6L of biomedia I dont remember exactly but the efluent flow rate is around 1ml per second or 86 litter per day sometimes it clogs and I just stop dosing for a day and it goes back to normal.
I carbon dose 6ml once per day in the morning solution is 50% vodka & 50% white vinegar and has keept my nitrates at 5ppm
I think your challenge is going to be first to get all the air out of the reactor because if you cant it will take you longer to create the anaerobic zone, second to maintain a stable efluent flow because as bacteria builds up you might need to adjust the efluent valve, but please let us know how is doing

Also: whenever you test higher nitrates in the efluent than the display tank means it will start working in the next couple of days
Let me know if that helps

 

[Afterburner]

Ivan,
Thanks for the advice. I am glad I put the clear side so I can see any air bubbles. Since it is pressurized, I should be able to flip it over and rotate it to get the air through the maze. I have been busy with other things and not able to fire this thing up yet. My current tank is around 4ppm NO3, so I am not really incentivized right this moment, but I will get it going soon to see what it does on my nano tank that has high NO3. From my calculations, this thing is just over 7 liters, so it should be able to easily support my 90g DT, and be a way overkill for my 7g nano.
I really appreciate you providing the specifications on your system also.
John

 

[luckylato]

I'm reading this but some how I am missing the specific parts list and how to put it all together. Help me please.

 

[Afterburner]

Well, I fired up the suitcase reactor over the weekend and the clear acrylic made it easy to see how to rotate it to get all of the air out. I actually realized that simply rotating it 90 degrees when filling it will force almost all of the air to the top (actually side), and when rotated back to the upright position the last bit of trapped air will escape.
Then I tried pressuring it before running bacteria seed. This resulted in the sides bowing slightly and eventually a leak occurred. Keep in mind that the walls are 1/8" because I was able to get an incredible deal on a piece of damaged acrylic (slight scratches). I am sure 1/4" acrylic would have worked fine with more area to weld it together and less flex, but since this is what I have right now, I put some epoxy on all of the connections and will try pressurizing again soon.

 

[Ivan L]

Well, I fired up the suitcase reactor over the weekend and the clear acrylic made it easy to see how to rotate it to get all of the air out. I actually realized that simply rotating it 90 degrees when filling it will force almost all of the air to the top (actually side), and when rotated back to the upright position the last bit of trapped air will escape.
Then I tried pressuring it before running bacteria seed. This resulted in the sides bowing slightly and eventually a leak occurred. Keep in mind that the walls are 1/8" because I was able to get an incredible deal on a piece of damaged acrylic (slight scratches). I am sure 1/4" acrylic would have worked fine with more area to weld it together and less flex, but since this is what I have right now, I put some epoxy on all of the connections and will try pressurizing again soon.

Nice! let us know your progress, I still think you can gravity feed your reactor as a second option if pressurizing is too complex to keep stable.

As for your question, my tank is 650 liters 1.80x60x60 bare bottom a lot of live rock, with a 90 liter sump with a 4" filter sock a bubble magus curve 9 Elite and some extra biomedia, I keep phosphates under control using a Hana ULR checker and Phosphate RX also Donovan's denitrator for keeping nitrates stable

 

[Afterburner]

Nice! let us know your progress, I still think you can gravity feed your reactor as a second option if pressurizing is too complex to keep stable.

As for your question, my tank is 650 liters 1.80x60x60 bare bottom a lot of live rock, with a 90 liter sump with a 4" filter sock a bubble magus curve 9 Elite and some extra biomedia, I keep phosphates under control using a Hana ULR checker and Phosphate RX also Donovan's denitrator for keeping nitrates stable

Ivan, on my main tank, I used NOPOX dosing and drove my nitrates to around 1ppm and I turned it off months ago, but my nitrates are still ultra low, so I have not been too motivated on this project lately, but will try to check pressure and seed it today. I also used a combination of Posphate Rx and GFO to keep PO4 at acceptable levels. I am also trying a Santa Monica Drop algae scrubber that I just put in the sump yesterday to see how that does on PO4 levels. Won't know how it is working for a few weeks. I test PO4 daily and started heavily dosing Plankton (4oz/day) recently and expected a PO4 spike, but it did not affect my PO4 levels at all. I am also working on a DIY plankton dosing system that I should have working this week.

 

[Afterburner]

I fired it up today and did a leak test. All is good, the epoxy seems to be working. I poured about half a bottle of seed bacteria into the water and will let it circulate for about a week. When I filled it, I left it on it's side and this took care of all the air trapped inside. I will add the exit valve to the unit and dosing tube/filter to the pump next week.

 

[Afterburner]

Well, later that afternoon, it sprang a leak. I guess the 1/8" acrylic I got really cheap is a little too thin to make a good connection at the seams (not enough material to effectively weld together). I may try more epoxy, but now I am a little scared to even use it in my house on one of my tanks since a leak would be a disaster. I may just put this on the back burner and see how the algae scrubber preforms.

 

[8ptspike]

I am a year out from a big upgrade and I will be using the DND from the start. Anybody using this AND a refugium? I don’t want to starve out my caulerpa and gracilaria.

 

[Ivan L]

Well, later that afternoon, it sprang a leak. I guess the 1/8" acrylic I got really cheap is a little too thin to make a good connection at the seams (not enough material to effectively weld together). I may try more epoxy, but now I am a little scared to even use it in my house on one of my tanks since a leak would be a disaster. I may just put this on the back burner and see how the algae scrubber preforms.

to bad to hear that, if you have a sump you can also put it there at max speed without dosing, it will increase your biological surface and it doesnt matters if it leaks

 

[Afterburner]

The reason I built a pressurized version is because my sump has no room. I am sure I will find something to do with he media in the future anyway, or I will take another stab at it when I have an NO3 issue.

 

[BurgerFish]

Is there any reason to is this reactor with Skimmer and fuge with chaeto?

 

[Cwentz758]

Just curious. What’s Rest In Peace mean on here in people tabs

 

[tehmadreefer]

Just curious. What’s Rest In Peace mean on here in people tabs

Means they are no longer alive

 

[steeb]

I'll give a quick update. I had this running for a few months and the nitrate went to 5ppm from well over 100ppm. I was adding at one point up to 12ml of vodka,vinegar ro mix daily until a white film developed on the glass then scaled back and kept around 9ml a day. The system does clog or maybe it's my pump. All I have is about half full of ceramic rings on both sides.

I had to travel a bit for work and the system clogged / skimmer wasnt going every day. Right now it's at about 60-80 ppm and Ill test again in 2 days to see if it's dropped any. I do notice that if it clogs for long enough, a few days I will smell the sulfer.

 

[Difrano]

Wow I found this thread and is awesome, I did something similar with a freshwater planted aquarium with a deep dirt/sand bed that became self sustainable with no water changes for years. So sad for the tragic death of Donovan RIP. I am thinking about building one of those for my new RSR 250, this idea is great. Cheers to him!