DIY Coil Denitrater with Carbon Filtering

Kryofrozen

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Hi Guys

I just got back from Builders Express and a LFS for my DIY goodies.

I'll take photos and attach them to this thread later.

Shopping list and how much?:-

1 X 1m 11cm drain pipe - R17.95
2 X 11cm End caps - R49.95 each (Expensive but I had to have 'em)
90m Air line tubing @ R1.00p/m = R90.00

What I have already at home:-

Bioballs (I have tons from my FW days!)
Marine Silicone
2 X Elbows

What I plan on doing:-

So I have all of the above and I'm going to make the standard DIY Coil Denitrater. The plans for which are readily available in different variations on the www. BUT I'm going to do something different! I've read a lot about the breakdown of nitrates within the denitrater but what stopped me from doing this project a while ago was the mention of the water leaving the denitrater having to be heavily aerated to remove the sulpher hyd. that can be and might be released into the tanks main body of water; the levels of which can build up in the system to toxic over time. This sounded like too much of risk and a mission for me and would ultimately require the water first going into a container with a ton of airstones and then yet another return pump to pump it back into the tanks main stream.

I recently came across an article which mentions filtering the water through carbon before going into the tanks main water stream. This removes the sulpher hyd. and cleans the water further. Since I change the carbon every two weeks I'll be removing the build up entirely!

So how am I going to do this? Well I bought a Water boy 3 in 1 unit a while ago which runs my carbon filtration. It used to run a UV but the UV kept on rusting in my system so I eventually gave up on the UV all together! Back to the denitrater, I'm going to hook up the exit pipe from the denitrater to the entrance part on the 3 in 1; filter it first through the carbon and then into a very water turbulent part of my sump to further mix the denitrated water with the tanks main body of water.

I can't wait to get home and start this project! I'm hoping the 1m length will be sufficient to filter out the nitrates in my 780lt system. If I don't see a significant drop in about 2mths time, I'll add another DIY denitrater and take it from there!

Well thats all for now!

Cher
 
Kryo - please keep us update and with pics. i was also worried about the sulpher but what you said makes sense - if your nitrates drop, i will also build one.

good luck
 
Good luck Kryo. Please keep us up to date on this one. Sounds very interesting.

One thing though, how will you be sure that you are removing all the sulpher. Maybe a test kit?
 
Good luck and look forward to updates. Pictorial would be great as well...please.
Will you be doing this or your husband. No offence. Just curious
 
Good luck and look forward to updates. Pictorial would be great as well...please.
Will you be doing this or your husband. No offence. Just curious

:lol: You're funny! I will be doing it... The "fish" story (as my hubby calls it) is MY DEPARTMENT... Besides, I ENJOY DIY and I can handle POWER TOOLS! :razz:
 
Ooo.... very nice image of Kryo with a power tool...:lol:
 
kryo, just a couple of suggestions or things to bear in mind. filter water before it goes into denitrator or it will clog over time, secondly, anaerobic bacteria in a denitrator need to be fed a little sugar water once a week to keep them going, also if the flow rate is too slow the sulphur as a bi product kills all your bacteria, if your flow rate is too fast the oxygen left in your water kills your bacteria, if the sulphur gets too high because of too slow a flow rate for the process rate in tube(egg smell) IT WILL KILL ALL THE SENSITIVE ITEMS IN YOUR TANK. this can happen in a few hours if your bacteria multiply excessively at any given time. i would strongly suggest that you have a well developed dsb , refugium wih an algae scrubber, less risk, and also have a ups for your pump on your denitrator cos if you have a power failure your filter will die.
ps i had one so what i am talking about is from personal experience and hit and miss experiments,coupled with lots of research and the loss of some of my stock, followed by a quick walk to the dustbin with my denitrator and all of the variences
 
Hi Guys

I finally got a bit of spare time to start my project last night!

I've been taking lots of pictures, but plan to consolidate everything into a .pdf document at the end and then post. Then everyone can download it and keep it for reference!

So thus far I mananged to get the coil about +-1/3 the way up on the inside of the tube. For some reason the inside of the pipe got slippery and I had to stop and silicone the airline I had already coiled so that it didn't slide up again.

For all those who have been battling to get the pipe on the inside you will need the following:

- LOTS OF PATIENCE!
- Some Super Glue Gel
- Masking tape
- Marine Silicone

I started off the coil by first Super Glueing the airline to the bottom inside of the tube. This is where the tank water will exit into the pipe and I felt it needed to be stuck down to prevent uncoiling at a later stage. I then packed another 6 rounds of coil and stuck that down with some masking tape, applied a bit more Super Glue and continued. I repeated the above process and thus far it's been working very well.

I think a thicker tube would have definitly helped speed things up, so if you are wanting to try this project make sure you get yourself a 25cm tube instead of an 11cm. The reason is that occassionally you need to put both your hands into the tube to hold/stick things and if you have man's hands and arms you're screwed! :lol:

I am hoping to finish this project by Sunday, so hopefully you should have all the pics by next week.

Cher
 
kryo, just a couple of suggestions or things to bear in mind. filter water before it goes into denitrator or it will clog over time, secondly, anaerobic bacteria in a denitrator need to be fed a little sugar water once a week to keep them going, also if the flow rate is too slow the sulphur as a bi product kills all your bacteria, if your flow rate is too fast the oxygen left in your water kills your bacteria, if the sulphur gets too high because of too slow a flow rate for the process rate in tube(egg smell) IT WILL KILL ALL THE SENSITIVE ITEMS IN YOUR TANK. this can happen in a few hours if your bacteria multiply excessively at any given time. i would strongly suggest that you have a well developed dsb , refugium wih an algae scrubber, less risk, and also have a ups for your pump on your denitrator cos if you have a power failure your filter will die.
ps i had one so what i am talking about is from personal experience and hit and miss experiments,coupled with lots of research and the loss of some of my stock, followed by a quick walk to the dustbin with my denitrator and all of the variences

Hi thanks for your insite!

I was planning on using a Hailea 150l/h pump. I found one last weekend, it's a similar size and shape to the one you sent me. Do you think 150l/h is too slow flow? I have a 500l/p pump which came with the 3 in 1 unit, so it would be easy to swap...

I was thinking about the possibility of a power failure... Still going to sort that one out!

Cher
 
denitrator

your flowrate depends entirely imo on what is coming out of the denitrator and should be adjusted accordingly by having a valve on the exit tube. i would start at a very slow trickle and leave it alone for six weeks. then if necessary reduce flow slightly. one of the guys had an oxygen sensor that adjusted things accordingly, i think that would be good. by the way the pump i sent you used to run my coil and denitrator after that. have a lekker weekend
 
Just a quick question Cher - why would you want to use a de-nitrator specifically?
Do you have a DSB?
I have just found that a DSB does a FAR better job than a de-nitrator...... Just my opinion though.
 
Now Gali that just rude.

:whistling:

A pic of you in an overall with a bigass drill in your one hand will go well in your PDF document. :lol:


More seriously, are you going to use the whole 90m of airline tubing? Is that a standard length for denitrators or how did you know you needed 90m?
 
not standard 10 metres seems to be standard of quarter inch plastic tube, if outside of unit pref black to prevent algae growth and interference
 
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