Denitrifier PH

[DonW]

Boomer is there an easy way to get the ph up on my denitrifier system output. I tried ca reactor media but it is low enough to raise ca and alk faster than my demand. The tank is to new to need and supplimenting.

Also is there a benefit to running the output through carbon?

Don

 

[acrylic_300]

Mine runs directly into my skimmer....but a lime wood airstone at the exit might work if you can do it without creating micro bubbles in the display.

Or you could drip kalk.

Or find a reactor media with a higher melting point.

 

[DonW]

Mine runs directly into my skimmer....but a lime wood airstone at the exit might work if you can do it without creating micro bubbles in the display.

Or you could drip kalk.

Or find a reactor media with a higher melting point.

I'm not using a skimmer on my tank. I use a multistage refiltering system the ph drops to 6.5 which is low enough to melt even the schuran media.

Don

 

[Boomer]

There are a few ways Don if the issue is CO2. Ammonia remover in a tall PVC tube or a CO2 scrubber. Here are some of our old discussions on it.


NaOH and kitty litter (ammonia remover) CO2 scrubbers
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=311556


Drierite / Ascarite CO2 scrubbers
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1021168

Tested issues with some of these CO2 scrubbers
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=532444

There is another one often used for RO units that can remove the CO2. The only draw back to this is there is not any high room air CO2. Any time you have high room air CO2 and you try to aerated the water in that high room air CO2 environment you just make it worse, i.e., lower pH


The tall tube in the trash can.
http://www.spectrapure.com/CO2_SYSTEM.pdf

Carbon, yes by all means. If one of these units goes bad it can dump in some nasty chemicals and GAC should help this, which may save some animals.

 

[DonW]

Those look like some doable options. I guess I didnt think about the air stone. One of my stages after the nitifier is O3 but I havent turned it on yet. The O3 is being used as the booster to help push the return the water back to the tank.

So it goes.
Denitrifier > CA media > Rowa > o3 > carbon But the ca precip is clumping the rowa. If I replace the ca media with something else is there a problem with 6.5 ph water eating the rowa?

Don

 

[Herefishyfishy]

So it goes Denitrifier > CA media > Rowa > o3 > carbon But the ca precip is clumping the rowa. If I replace the ca media with something else is there a problem with 6.5 ph water eating the rowa?

Don

Don's denitrifier rough mock-up

 

[DonW]

Its not that bad. Its just 8 ro canisters modified to do individual jobs. Now the bio gear stack looks like it was stolen from an erector set.

Don

 

[acrylic_300]

Great!!!....now I will become obsessed with learning about zeolites. I really had no interest until the kitty litter was mentioned.

Congratulations on not having a skimmer....mine dumps the skimate back into the last chamber of my denitrator. It's all part of an old antique wet/dry filter that Iv'e been trying to figure out for 3 years now.

My denitrator dumps into the skimmer... and the skimmer dumps into the denitrator. Not my doing it was built that way (well built).

I usually don't mention it because it's just too strange.

 

[DonW]

Great!!!....now I will become obsessed with learning about zeolites. I really had no interest until the kitty litter was mentioned.

Congratulations on not having a skimmer....mine dumps the skimate back into the last chamber of my denitrator. It's all part of an old antique wet/dry filter that Iv'e been trying to figure out for 3 years now.

My denitrator dumps into the skimmer... and the skimmer dumps into the denitrator. Not my doing it was built that way (well built).

I usually don't mention it because it's just too strange.

How much flow is going through your denitrator?

Don

 

[acrylic_300]

I timed it once and did some math and it was something like 25-30 gallons a day. It takes about a week for the whole tank to cycle through it.

 

[Boomer]

No Don you should be OK at that pH. The dissolution of GFO's is function of pH and it is always very high or very low pH. The difference between seawater and your 6.5 is little with just a slight increase. GFO's are pretty insoluble. About the only thing that takes place at that lower pH will be a shift in the Iron speciation of the GFO (Iron oxidation state).