reely989
Active Member
Ha! I spent a few years battling nitrates. I learned a few lessons. If you want more info I can provide my experiences, I tried vodka dosing, water changes, Pellet reactor and many things. But, in the end, my jerry-rigged denitration factory is working wonders and has no cost upkeep and no fear of things breaking down over time. Initially when I was using filter socks, I needed something to polish the water. So I bought a Nu-Clear cannister filter with a 25 micron cartridge from Marine and Reef. (around $200). It's not a typical cannister filter. The top has a stainless steel spring collar to seal the unit so it's easy to open and close and clean.
Well, after a few months of being tired of washing the filter cartridge and nitrates skyrocketing no matter what I did (e.g. peak Nitrates were around 75ppm). I plumbed the cannister off my return manifold with a ball valve so I can control the water flow into it.
That said I removed the cartridge, and filled it with around $20 - $25 of Matrix rock. It's just small pieces of pourous rock that doesn't break down. I filled the cannister filter 3/4 full of rock. Sealed it up and adjusted the water flow to just barely cover all the rock and it drains near my skimmer intake. It took a solid 6 months for it to have an impact. I even dosed Micro bacter 7 and Micro bacter clean to try to seed the rocks with bacteria. I don't know the science, but the matrix rocks said they work better to populate bacteria if nitrates are at 20 or below. So, I did 2 50% water changes in a month got nitrates down between 10 and 20 and as a result, they've never risen above 15 since then Over 2 years ago, with minimal 20% water changes. I've increased the bio load and feeding amount and types of food fed and nitrates never deviate. So, I feel like the "Denitration factory" is working great. (Tested with Hanna High range Nitrate tester).
You could use anything that has a slow flow that runs aquarium water over the matrix rock. I like the set it and forget it piece of this. I haven't touched those rocks in over 2 years. I don't want to disturb or hurt the bacteria at all.
Pellet reactor may work in a similar way, but you need to replace the pellets every 3 -6 months. Too much maintenance for my liking and added maintenance cost. The pellets cost close to $60 and the matrix rock was $25 once and done.
Let me know if you want pictures. My sump build is NOT pretty. I go for function vs. pretty and sustaining nitrates in an acceptable range is tough! I found it hard to get the right bacteria to populate to reduce nitrates. If people could manufacture the specific strains in a bottled dosing method that I could dose to populate the rocks would have sped up the process from 6 months to a few weeks. But, I haven't found anything that shows specific strains of bacteria.
I think I get it! I may try that if I have issues with nitrates. I'm carbon dosing my 5 gallon right now and that's been working ok so far, so hopefully it'll keep working with the tank swap.
