I’ve had a few questions about my Denitrate Tower, so I thought I would provide a thread with a few details.
The “Denitrate Towerâ€
The “Denitrate Towerâ€
The intent has never been to "cut down on maintenance". The intent was (is) to provide optimal water quality.... and your not going to beat zero nitrate. I also have very soft water with a KH of only 2dGH. A side effect of the denitrification is that my KH does not erode, resulting in fluctuating PH values. So I've killed two birds with one stone (so to speak). Very healthy and stable water.Malawi_Junkie said:Man, I don't know what to say but IMHO overkill.
A+ for creativity but it's a little much don't ya think. I guess you really can't overfilter your water but is it worth all your effort, is this really cutting down on your maintanence or adding to it. All the equipment kinda takes away from the fish.
You have obviously worked very hard and thought this out so if it works and your happy then thats what counts.
One of three things occurred. The micron filter itself is made of cellulose, cellulose is an organic carbon source. Perhaps there is enough break down of the micron filter material that it is serving as an organic carbon source for the denitrifying bacteria. Another possibility, this one is at least a certainty, is that the micron filter is removing all detritus (even microscopic) which allows the pores of the media inside the filter to remain open, enhancing denitrification efficiency. The final possibility is that it is serving no (or limited) purpose…. that the filter was going to achieve zero nitrate creep and adding the Micron filter was only a coincidence. The only certainty is that the Micron filter limits maintenance requirements of the denitrate tower as absolutely no “gunkâ€
so the seachem denitrate doesn't work?The "denitrification media" I'm using is a combination of SeaChem deNitrate
Denitrators typically produce very low concentrations of H2S. Some of it may dissociate in water to form sulphuric acid, slightly lowering water pH. However, if a denitrator output is allowed to drip through air space before re-entering water, most of the H2S will become airborne. It is characterized by rotten egg smell (swamp gas odour), noticeable at concentrations of about 0.005ppm. I surmise that typical denitrator production would be well below 1 ppm, and notwithstanding pH changes, would present an odour nuisance at worse to humans.BenHugs said:Does the hydrogen sulphide stay in the water column or can it be "bubbled out"? Is it dangerous to the humans living in the room?
I doubt kmuda tought his daughter the word bong and what it does...jfly said:your daughter calls it "king kong's bong!?!?!?" hmm and how old is she.. i'd kill myself if my kid said that, then myself for my parenting faults
You don't have to worry about it. As long as the outflow is running through aerobic filter media, if hydrogen sulfide is occuring bacteria will become established that will convert the hydrogen sulfide to sulfate, which will eliminate the odor.BenHugs said:Thanks kmuda I was unaware of the carbon part but I don't run it in my system anyways. I was thinking of using up some carbon that I do have on the outflow of this denitrifier just incase I did get the rotten egg smell.