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

[cchomistek]

So I am seeing a bacterial bloom within the display tank as of today which tells me that the vodka must be getting through the reactor and causing a bloom in the tank water. I have cloudiness and white film on the glass. I have dropped the vodka from 11.5 ml to 10 ml per day. I am still on 10 doses a day. I would think the reactor should be able to consume the 1 ml at a time dose before it has gotten to my display but maybe not. I still am not seeing zero nitrates yet. Going on 2 and a half weeks running. I would think by now I would be seeing a good buildup of bacteria. No snot coming from discharge yet either.

Merry Christmas everyone. Hopefully 2018 brings everyone reef lots of joy.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Kind of weird having bacteria bloom on your display. You can reduce your flow further more. How high is your media on each chamber by the way (approximately)?. Can you take another flow measurement (use 25ml measuring cup for liquid medicine - cough syrup etc) and measure your output for 10 seconds. If you are having bacterial bloom on your display, it is a clear indicator some of your vodka escaped from the chamber (probably too much flow). You can use filter socks on your outlet to catch the excess bacteria being produced. Clean it everyday, you should have a good amount of slime covering by now.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

How is the tank going?. Everything look normal?. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2018!

 

[cchomistek]

Fish and coral don't seem bothered by any changes thus far.

I had roughly 15mLs of water going through in 10 seconds.

I reduced it a bit.

One thing is the skimmer is crazy. I know you said it would be. Here is a picture of my skimmer about 20 minutes after cleaning it and a picture of the flow after reducing it.

 

[cchomistek]

Still have cyano on rocks and sand but I am not expecting any of that to change until I get things balanced.

Also I think I probably have both filled about 3/4 of the way up the u tubes with two sizes of bio rings.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

15ml/10s equal 130litre/day. How many % turn over is that? (i forgot your total volume :P). Do you have spare socks to catch the output?. It will give you good indication of how much bacteria build up you are having right now :)

 

[cchomistek]

I could possibly set up a sock possibly. My total water volume is about 230 gallons. So about a 15% turn over. I slowed it down a bit.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Setup a sock filter temporarily so that you can observe how much bacteria is oozing out. Skimmer helps bacteria removal but socks will catch more, probably all will end up in it. When mine is reaching it's peak capacity, I can squeeze the slime and fill up a cup with it. Yucky slimy bacteria :)

 

[cchomistek]

Ok I will try that out. How long till it should be clogged up with bacteria? One day or more?

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Should be a day or two, if yours are producing enough bacteria to start clogging.

 

[cchomistek]

Ok and can you reuse the same filter after rinsing the bacteria off or do you change filters and wash them continuously?

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Ok and can you reuse the same filter after rinsing the bacteria off or do you change filters and wash them continuously?

You can reuse it after cleaning. Just squeeze the bacteria (if any) and rinse under the tap, or RODI if you want and let it dry. Nothing fancy.

 

[Casey-Reef]

Donovan,
Thank you for sharing your reactor design. I read all 28 pages and it was very interesting.

I plan to build a reactor for my 125g tank. I have a couple questions please...

Does it make a difference where I place the reactor input and output in the system? My first chamber in my sump has my protein skimmer and I don't have room for the reactor to fit there. 2nd chamber has cheato I'm just starting to grow.

I'm considering maybe having the reactor external to my sump and just have the input/output lines go into the sump. But what is recommended?

Reactor media; Is there a recommended shopping list maybe on Amazon to choose from? I see this media was posted above
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074MQQCDG/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I2QKQW902XR2V0&colid=3EUZB68JR6UMB&psc=0

It has not been clear to me as to what media is the best. Only thing is to make sure it does not clog.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

@Casey-Reef, no problem at all. Inlet/outlet can be anywhere, just make sure water goes in and out at the longest path. For external reactor, make sure it doesn't leak and the dosing hose is plugged/valve fitted in case of clogging.

As for media selection, anything porous/inert media and big enough to allow good water flow is fine. Make your own choice based on your budget.

 

[cchomistek]

So I came home from work today to see some definite bacteria mulm coming from the discharge of the reactor so we are definitely getting somewhere. I used my last filter sock when I blew off the cyano before Christmas so I will not be able to test that out for a week or so. I think the reactor is definitely starting to work with the sure of the bacterial discharge so I will leave the vodka at the dosage I am at now and monitor things. I should start to see a drop over the next while though.

 

[Casey-Reef]

So I came home from work today to see some definite bacteria mulm coming from the discharge of the reactor so we are definitely getting somewhere. I used my last filter sock when I blew off the cyano before Christmas so I will not be able to test that out for a week or so. I think the reactor is definitely starting to work with the sure of the bacterial discharge so I will leave the vodka at the dosage I am at now and monitor things. I should start to see a drop over the next while though.

How much phosphate is this reactor able to remove?

 

[cchomistek]

How much phosphate is this reactor able to remove?

I think it should remove some as with all bacteria nitrate consumption there is some phosphate removed. I will let Donovan comment for sure.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

That is good news indeed.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

How much phosphate is this reactor able to remove?

It depends on bacteria strain, but definitely it does remove some. I am not running any GFO, but phosphate remains below 0.1ppm. I don't have low resolution po4 test kit, but judging from my coral health I think it is low enough not to cause any issue (no algae at all even though I run warm spectrum 5 hours daily at 85% intensity).

 

[Stlouphil]

5 days and ABSOLUTELY NO drop in nitrates. Tonight I discovered I had anaerobic and aerobic sides backwards. :rolleyes: Switched the top caps and changed the pump. Hopefully that will get things going. Lol