NITRATE FILTER PROJECT UNDERWAY

[King Edward]

I WAS JUST GOING TO UNDER FEED A BIT AND NOT WORRY ABOUT it

IN A WASTEWATER PLANT THE OUTPUT IS UNDER LEGAL CONTROLS and must be run at optimum. they use real time monitoring and control = $$$$


if i reduce the nitrate by 80% it would be great for my tank and should be easy to manage

Yeah, thats the way to do it ...80% reduction would be amazing... dibs on your kit when you upgrade! i dont know much about denitrification, I'm just posting in case this is of interest so if you ever cant sleep one night and need some heavy reading, heres an article on denitrification!

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=201585&pageindex=1

 

[johnptc]

OK ITS SEEMS TO WORK !!!!

on 3/1 the filter was filled w tank water at 32ppm nitrate
i added 1L of micro c g the carbon food source
the unit has been recirculating and heated but not exchanging any water with the main tank

today i measured the nitrate level and it has dropped to 18 ppm !!!! almost 50%. I was not expecting a drop so soon as i would think the anoxic bacteria would take a while to colonize..........remember this is just the 1100 gallons in the filter... not in the main tank but its only been one week


next step......i am going to drain about 40% of the water from the filter and replace it with tank water and add the correct amount of micro cg and let it continue to run in recirc mode .............and check it in a few days....

 

[Nic]

sounds good.... john will you still be doing your daily water changes as well???

 

[johnptc]

sounds good.... john will you still be doing your daily water changes as well???

once the nitrate filter is up and running on a continuous basis. i thought i would use carbon in the main filter and reduce the flow in the 24/7 water change system by 75% and watch and measure........adjust from there.

 

[King Edward]

Thats ace... one week does seem fast!

 

[scubasteve06]

Once that massive surface area colonizes its gonna be good night to all nitrites and nitrates that even thinking about popping up.

 

[Nic]

once the nitrate filter is up and running on a continuous basis. i thought i would use carbon in the main filter and reduce the flow in the 24/7 water change system by 75% and watch and measure........adjust from there.

so your going for less of a drip and hoping to self sustain the tank?

 

[johnptc]

still running in the batch mode.....( filled nitrate filter with tank water but not recirculating with the tank yet)

sun 1100 filled nitrate filter with tank water at 40 ppm nitrate
sun 1800 20 ppm nitrate
mon 0900 8 ppm nitrate

so it seems the anoxic bacteria are cycling and the nitrates are being reduced faster and faster

probably run again in the batch mode and then try continuous mode

 

[HeavyChicken]

how much did all that media cost? if you dont mind me asking? Gotta be cheaper than Bio Balls right?

 

[vanilla__gorilla__]

wow sounds lime it might turn out to be one hell of a filter if this does work as good as it seems like it will I would love to try and make one at a much smaller size for those of us like me that aren't on John's level just yet