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

[Donovan Joannes]

Are you familiar with Glennf and his DSR dosing process? He doses around a dozen elements and gets great results without water changes. I'd imagine that the 2 extra elements you learned about from you microbiologist friend are included in Glennf's regimen. Iron citrate comes to mind. No need to throw out teasers about other elements without sharing the whole story among friends. Please share what those 2 elements are since you brought it up.

I can't tell you what is it my friend. He is holding that formula for waste water industry. My best friend in college, so I am holding to that trust. As i mentioned before, even vodka alone will work. I tell everybody that I am using diy nopox formula. The other two elements is not necessary to be in the dosage to make it work.

 

[MockandRoll]

How it suppose to look. The height of each tower depends on your available working height (for easy carbon dosing). I would recommend at least 18" high. You can make it higher or use bigger diameter PVC pipe but make sure the media sizes are increased as well. Bigger pipe with smaller media sizes will clog once bacteria grows in there. If having another pump for the reactor is not on your setup list, just tee-off your return or overflow pipe. My small fountain pump failed on me recently (leaky circuit tripping my main electrical switch) so I just drill a hole and fit in the hose.

Great write-up and your results are awesome. Do you think it's possible to combine the aerobic and anaerobic zones into one tube? Maybe a mess divider? I have a smaller tank and could fit one 4"x 18" tube.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Great write-up and your results are awesome. Do you think it's possible to combine the aerobic and anaerobic zones into one tube? Maybe a mess divider? I have a smaller tank and could fit one 4"x 18" tube.

The separation of aerobic and anaerobic zones happens internally, exactly where each zones start/end depends on oxygen depletion rate performed by aerobic bacteria. I don't know whether a single 18" tube will be long enough for aerobic bacteria to perform its work, consuming oxygen fast enough so that certain parts of the tube is receiving low oxygen water for denitrification to occur. It might happen if the flow is low enough without the worry of hydrogen sulfide issue.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

I love this idea. I wonder if a BRS dual reactor could be modified to work for this. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-gfo-carbon-dual-reactor.html The biggest challenge I see is creating some means of NoPoX injection without causing the reactor to leak.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

I love this idea. I wonder if a BRS dual reactor could be modified to work for this. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-gfo-carbon-dual-reactor.html The biggest challenge I see is creating some means of NoPoX injection without causing the reactor to leak.

My reactor is gravity pulled concept as you can see on the drawing. Carbon dosing into a pressurised reactor will be a challenge. Maybe you can try teeing off the inlet pipe/hose, install two ball valve an inch off each other. To dose, close the first valve, open the other one, inject carbon through it, close and open the first one (am i explaining it correctly?).

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Corals of South China Sea and Sulu Sea...

 

[Maacc]

Great tank! Congratulations the idea looks very intriguing.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Great tank! Congratulations the idea looks very intriguing.

Thanks a lot. Appreciate it very much.

 

[CNDReef]

Amazing

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Amazing

Thank you so much sir. I am sharpening my knowledge on trace element. I overdosed zinc last few weeks and acros hate it so much. I severely burnt two small acro colonies with 90 degree lens as well. I removed my skimmer as it no longer pulling enough skimmate, cleared up some space in my sump. Let see how it goes from here.

 

[CNDReef]

I'd keep the skimmer to aerate the water , bacteria also consumes oxygen. Maybe add a smaller skimmer or a diy airstone skimmer to keep some fresh bubbles in there.
Might also cause your ph to go out of wack with more co2 build up

 

[Donovan Joannes]

I'd keep the skimmer to aerate the water , bacteria also consumes oxygen. Maybe add a smaller skimmer or a diy airstone skimmer to keep some fresh bubbles in there.
Might also cause your ph to go out of wack with more co2 build up

Yup. My air pump is running with air stone in the sump when skimmer was removed. So far PH is stable at 8.0. Still on 9 hours night shift though (air pump).

 

[CNDReef]

Cool

 

[Elgringodiablo]

My reactor is gravity pulled concept as you can see on the drawing. Carbon dosing into a pressurised reactor will be a challenge. Maybe you can try teeing off the inlet pipe/hose, install two ball valve an inch off each other. To dose, close the first valve, open the other one, inject carbon through it, close and open the first one (am i explaining it correctly?).

Makes sense. Probably just use the PVC pipes instead. I'd like to run this outside of my sump, so I need to come up with a reliable, leakproof solution for connecting the two chambers. Maybe a couple 1" uniseals with a standard piece of 1" pvc between the two 3-4" units.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Makes sense. Probably just use the PVC pipes instead. I'd like to run this outside of my sump, so I need to come up with a reliable, leakproof solution for connecting the two chambers. Maybe a couple 1" uniseals with a standard piece of 1" pvc between the two 3-4" units.

With an amateur piping skill I might flooded my house if installed externally. You can use bulkhead at the bottom end and link the two chambers with 1" elbows and pipes too. Should be leak proof if done properly but you might need to custom built a floor stand or clamp it to the wall. Backflushing is another feature I will incorporate should I need to build another one.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

Parts needed:-
Bio balls (medium & large size)
Ceramic rings (large seize)
Crushed coral (roughly 1/2" in size)
Pumice rocks (seachem denitrate/matrix or equivalent)

Do you mean the black plastic bio balls? As far as the ceramic rings, are those like siporax?

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Do you mean the black plastic bio balls? As far as the ceramic rings, are those like siporax?

Not the plastic type. Siporax or anything inert, ceramic material with high porousity will do.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

So... I am about 80% done with an external functioning version of this. Basically same build but 3" abs with caps cemented on the bottom and push connect fittings and bottom joining pipe glued on with transition cement.

So far it's working okay, with only minor leaks out of the top caps when I turn the flow up. Debating welding the caps on top on or adding threaded caps on the top.

How often does this typically clog? Want to make sure it's not going to turn into a volcano outside of my sump.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

The white vertical pipe is your dosing port?. If yes, I would tee-off this for emergency water backflow to sump in case of clogging. Clogging will happens due to excessive bacteria growth (overdosing), bio media tightly arranged (too small, when shaken it will rearrange itself covering any voids where water should flow) or detritus being introduced into the chamber (socks filter recommended). When I dismantle my old 3" chambers, not much detritus build up in it. As long as the flow is properly sets, it shouldn't shoot up thru the dosing pipe.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

For in-sump design like mine, if it clogs or too much flow, it will over spill thru the dosing port back to my sump. For external design like yours @Elgringodiablo make sure you have an over flow port as safety measure. This is why my denitrator works on gravity pulled water flow instead of forced flow using pump.