Wow,
I have spent the last week reading all 49 pages of this thread. That was a rollercoaster of emotions. Donovan, I regret never having known you, but I think you have greatly influenced many people that share your passion for reefing. I could only be so lucky as to do the same. RIP Donovan.
That being said, there seems to be a lot of information scattered throughout this thread and not gathered in one place. Bear in mind, my reactor is not built yet, so this is just a gathering of information from what seems to be a path to success:
Why/How it works:
With the slow flow rate, the first tower is full of aerobic bacteria that removes oxygen from the water. This creates an anaerobic zone in the second tower, this is where the magic happens. Once the bacteria is anaerobic it removes an oxygen atom from No3(Nitrate) and creates No2(Nitrogen Gas), which escapes the water column through the effluent line.
The entire point of the reactor is to create an anaerobic area, with plenty of media for the anaerobic bacteria to live, with a carbon source to supercharge them.
Design:
This does not HAVE to be done with the two towers, there are people that have successfully done it with one LONG (Like 4 foot long) horizontal pipe. However, the twin tower method is the more likely path to success.
- Use a small tube to the exit/drain so air cannot bubble back into the reactor.
- Flow rate: Start out 5-10ml a second. After a reading of zero nitrates is obtained from the effluent you can increase flow and adjust carbon dosing to find a desired No3 level.
- Size: There seems to be a few people that report the most efficient dwell time (Time the water is in the reactor) is a little over an hour. SO, some math can be done here to figure it out; 10% of your system volume/ 24 = volume of your reactor (from inlet to outlet, not all the way to the top of the pipe). I would go as big as you can reasonably fit though.
- Can be built outside the sump if using an auto doser or some sort of valve on the dosing port, and the reactor is sealed.
Media:
Only requirements is that it is reef safe, is porous and has plenty of surface area for bacterial growth. (Think: Marine pure style bioballs etc)
It seems the smaller media gets clogged easy, when this happens you may be able to backflush it, or you may need to disassemble and start over. Multiple people have had plenty of success only using the 1” bioballs (Aquaneat) available on
Amazon as their ONLY media. These people have not seemed to have issues with clogging.
Bacteria: Seems most people have had success with Microbactor7. However, Dr. Tims Waste-a-Way doesn’t work (different type of bacteria). One-and-Only may work… but MB7 seems to be associated with the success stories.
Carbon Source: Vodka, or Vinegar, or NOPOX, or DIY NOPOX, or VSV. I think there is even a dude on here feeding it with a bio pellet reactor. Carbon dosing is best done through a doser and spread out throughout the day.
Start up- Set flow to 5-10ml per second, always make sure the stream is moving fast enough to prevent air from bubbling back into the reactor from the drain. 5 ml a day of MB7 for 5 days. On day three begin carbon dosing. (I have to do more research on the carbon doses, someone said start with 4ml if its vinegar, increasing by 2ml a day, then once a reduction in No3 is noted in the effluent maintain that dose)
After this the flow and carbon source can be titrated to maintain desired levels.
Notes:
- If you smell rotten eggs in the effluent increase the flow!!, This is Hydrogen Sulfide being created instead of No3 and it is toxic to the reef. Increased flow will eliminate this. If it is bad or if the reactor sits stagnant, circulate the water inside the reactor into a bucket instead of into the system.
