Notrate reactor does not work, nitrates spiking up

[reefer2000]

Hello everyone, hope i can get some help here. I have used this nitrate reactor on other reef tanks ot worked great, but this time I am using it on a 20 gallon cube and its not working. I soaked it in microbacter7 just like melevsreef said in his video and it still does not work. Its been running for 2 months already,same nitrate lvl never went down. Now it is slowly creaping up to 50 from 25
and dont really know why this is happening, the pellets tumble so there is no dead spots. My only humch is that their are microbubbles in my tank from skimmer so the micro bubbles go into the nitrate reactor and probably that messes it up. Any suggestions?

 

[Lasse]

Will you please give a closer description of your reactor. Is it sulphur media or Is it a classic denitrification reactor that need dosing of DOC (Dissolved Organic Carbon like ethanol)

Have you measure the NO2 level. When denitrification not are optimal NO2 can be formed and NO2 in the water affect your NO3 readings.

The media need to be anaerobic (both for sulphur and classic reactors) - tiny air bubbles into the reactor will bring oxygen into the reactor.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[reefer2000]

Will you please give a closer description of your reactor. Is it sulphur media or Is it a classic denitrification reactor that need dosing of DOC (Dissolved Organic Carbon like ethanol)

Have you measure the NO2 level. When denitrification not are optimal NO2 can be formed and NO2 in the water affect your NO3 readings.

The media need to be anaerobic (both for sulphur and classic reactors) - tiny air bubbles into the reactor will bring oxygen into the reactor.

Sincerely Lasse

Thanks for answering. I have never measured my NO2 lvls. The reactor is a nitrate pellet reactor. So the microbubbles are the problem? Because there is no way to get rid of them

 

[Lasse]

nitrate pellet

Any links what this is? I am not familiar with this. Yes the bubbles can be a problem but the flow through the reactor should be as low as possible - just drops per minute - they should not be a problem normally

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Mikeltee]

Try a name brand bio pellet. You will have to wait 6 weeks, but in the meantime, fix the problem. STOP OVERFEEDING.

 

[Lasse]

If it is a type of biopellets (they contain a type of organic carbon source) - the flow should be very low if you want a denitrification - if you have a high flow - they will act as consumer of NO3 - like bacteria growth. If this should work - you can´t let the PO4 go near zero. As it is now - I think that they work as a nitrification filter instead.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[reefer2000]

Try a name brand bio pellet. You will have to wait 6 weeks, but in the meantime, fix the problem. STOP OVERFEEDING.

Ill do that, just any ideas of what kind of pellets i should use?

 

[reefer2000]

If it is a type of biopellets (they contain a type of organic carbon source) - the flow should be very low if you want a denitrification - if you have a high flow - they will act as consumer of NO3 - like bacteria growth. If this should work - you can´t let the PO4 go near zero. As it is now - I think that they work as a nitrification filter instead.

Sincerely Lasse

Definitale will have that in mind thanks for the great tip