Nitrate Reactor

[T1KARMANN]

with the amount of fish i have in my tank i have always had problems keeping the nitrate in my tank down even with the 2 x 25% water changes i do every week

so its a new year and i have a new fish keeping budget for this year and dont have and more fish to buy as i have all the fish i need in my tank now

so im buying a nitrate reactor i have done my resurch and found that their is 2 different types that work in different ways

their is one type that you need to feed with alchol and another type that you feed with sulpher beads

i have been told that the unit that uses sulpher beads whill lower the ph but that shouldnt be a problem in a fresh water tank and would only realy affect a salt tank

as when i do the weekly water changes it should buff the ph back up (unless im wrong)

and info would be go

 

[Matthew5664]

I did so homework on the subject too and came to the same conclution

To avoid the PH change you can get a reactor fillit with coral gravel and run it sraight after the nitrate reactor to buffer the PH.

My tap water is nearly 70mg/l NO3 so I have a great time changing the water every 3 days!!

 

[T1KARMANN]

I did so homework on the subject too and came to the same conclution

To avoid the PH change you can get a reactor fillit with coral gravel and run it sraight after the nitrate reactor to buffer the PH.

My tap water is nearly 70mg/l NO3 so I have a great time changing the water every 3 days!!

well the things i need to know are the nitrate reactor only drip filters and the ph in my tank is 7.5 now so im hoping that it take a long time to bring it dow so buy the time i do the water change it should kep the ph buffed enoght as the water from my tap is 7

what do you think

 

[Matthew5664]

sorry I couldn't be of any help

Only trying to share a common problem

 

[T1KARMANN]

sorry I couldn't be of any help

Only trying to share a common problem

no problem any info is good

 

[fishing4exotics]

The fast drip output flow of a nitrate reactor makes it impractical for a large tank, IMO. If possible I would go with a continuous drip system from the tap. Pre filter with carbon cartridge used for refrigerators (cheap) or use an RO unit.

 

[T1KARMANN]

The fast drip output flow of a nitrate reactor makes it impractical for a large tank, IMO. If possible I would go with a continuous drip system from the tap. Pre filter with carbon cartridge used for refrigerators (cheap) or use an RO unit.

well the unit im looking at is ment to take care of a 3000l tank which is double the size of my tank so im thinking it should easly take care of my tank but i do know it will take a few months to kick in properly

have you ever used one

 

[fishing4exotics]

Tried them about 20 years ago. I thought they were an inovative concept at the time. Never went back to them. Just did my regular water changes to dilute the nitrates. Or, just had planted tanks that consumed the nitrates.

 

[andywg]

I must agree with F4E here. I've heard very few good stories about nitrate reactors. Getting the flow rate right to get the correct conditions is meant to be far from easy. But I would be interested to hear how you do.

 

[T1KARMANN]

I must agree with F4E here. I've heard very few good stories about nitrate reactors. Getting the flow rate right to get the correct conditions is meant to be far from easy. But I would be interested to hear how you do.

well im going to pick mine up today so i will let you know but i have been told that they take a month or two to kick in

the one im going to buy isnt cheap it the shuran nitrate filer 100 and should take care of a 3000L tank but not cheap at about £300

 

[CFC]

I tried a Nitrate reductor a couple of years ago and struggled to get it to work, after asking around and doing a bit of research i found they work best when used with a computerised flow monitor with a redox probe, another piece of expensive kit which brings the total cost to around £600 for a decent sized tank and one i wasnt prepared to buy. For this reason very few people bother with them as using R/O water and doing regular water changes gives you a satifactory result but if money isnt an issue and you like fiddling about with aquarium gadgets then i can see them being a very valuable tool.

 

[Lateral Line]

My tap water is nearly 70mg/l NO3 so I have a great time changing the water every 3 days!!

I saw this and thought of a thread I posted in a couple of years ago, here is the message I posted then.

RO units are great, they get rid of all manner of crap in tapwater. I have used RO for the last 15 years.

As an aside, the regulatory limit for nitrate in tapwater in the UK, (and throughout the EU incidently), is 50ppm. If your water company is supplying you with water with a higher nitrate level then that, you should complain to...

Drinking Water Inspectorate,
Floor 2/A1, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6DE
Tel: 020 7944 5956 - Fax : 020 7944 5969
E-mail: dwi.enquiries@defra.gsi.gov.uk

... excess nitrate in tapwater can lead to a number of health problems, in particular, a condition known as methaemoglobinaemia, or more commonly, "blue baby syndrome" which can kill young babies that are bottle fed with feed made from high nitrate tapwater.

I used to live on the Surrey/Hampshire border - I am well aware of the tapwater problems there.

As for de-nitrators, I have never had one work satisfactorily. Nitrate is not the only thing removed by water changes, chemical de-nitrators are not a way of avoiding water changes. If your feed water is already heavily polluted with nitrates, you would be better off treating that first.

 

[T1KARMANN]

im not looking to stop the water changes just cut them down to one per week

as for the expencive computer to run it properly thats the next bit of kit on my hit list

well i now have the shuran nitrate filter 100 up and running and i should start to see somw results in about 2-2 months

http/www.store.livingseas.co.uk/index.as...&productid=1942

my moto is you can never have enought filteration

a freind of mine is running the same unit on his 6 x asian aro comunity and swears buy it

if it doesnt work then at least i will have learned for myself what they are like

 

[Lateral Line]

You should still complain to DEFRA if your water is out of spec. I had Mid-Southern Water at Darby Green, dreadful stuff, hard as nails, full of nitrates and routinely dosed with chloramine. There is a growing body of evidence about long term health effects of high nitrates in drinking water.

You have the unit now, but I was thinking an ion-exchange resin on the tapwater before doing water changes might save you money and hassle. As you can see from the post I quoted, I went RO. I did that because I was breeding softwater fish - not just for nitrate issues.

 

[T1KARMANN]

You should still complain to DEFRA if your water is out of spec. I had Mid-Southern Water at Darby Green, dreadful stuff, hard as nails, full of nitrates and routinely dosed with chloramine. There is a growing body of evidence about long term health effects of high nitrates in drinking water.

You have the unit now, but I was thinking an ion-exchange resin on the tapwater before doing water changes might save you money and hassle. As you can see from the post I quoted, I went RO. I did that because I was breeding softwater fish - not just for nitrate issues.

i cant be asked storing RO water and taking stuff out of the water just to add other minerals

and to tell the truth i cant see any big improvments in fish kept in RO over fish kept in normal tap water

if you can show me any fault in my tank apart from the high nitrates i would be willing to listern but i feel all of my fish do as well if not better than other fish kept in RO