nitrate reduction

thinking of eventually doing away with my trickle filter in being replaced with high bacterial area anerobic reactor. anyone done this? did you have an ammonia or ph problem? going by the principle of having the nitrogen cycle localised.

A nitrate reactor of some kind is the way to go,myself i recomend a very clean sand bed or plenum,possibly multi level.If you intend on applying an anaerobic environment you should apply a substantial dry section to failsafe your ph,if you base your dry section on coral,shell grit,you know calcium,you cant go wrong.If you have calcium as your anaerobic medium your calcium levels will increase as the excreation from the bio creatures will dissolve it to some degree.

Depending on the size of your aquarium Aquamedic produce a sulphur denitrator that are an extremely efficent unit and serve a dual purpose of denitrafication along with returning calcium and carbonates back into the system as biproduct of the denitrification process unfortunately at this stage they only produce units design for up to 400litres. I personally run one of these units myself on a 4x2x2 coral reef display and maintain a constant <2ppm of Nitrate These units normally retail for around $200-250http://www.aqua-medic.de/seawater/en/13/schwefelnitratreductor400/

do you think it would be safer to run a sulfer denitator and keep the dry section? ive heard such units can be dangerous if not monitored daily? have you tried running a reef tank with a number of fish with no trickle filter?

I am not a fan of this style of dinitrating,form the things i have seen and herd.

Though in the right hands i suppose it can get some great results and add some sales for it as well.

I think if you remember where the anaerobic environment is at it's most effecient in a natural way,you get the result you want and some extras added to your tankwater.

For space saving,sure,go for a reactor and maybe make your own based on some natural aspects.

The way the ocean does it,to some degree,if you have the room,is the way i would always go!

You Just need to remember,anaerobic bacteria does it's job,at it's best,when,there is little to no light,when there is little to no oxygen and a seriuosly slow flow through this area and it does it's job well if there is no chance of any rubbish getting to it.

The ocean mainly uses phytoplankton to keep it healthy and there are ways of doing something similar to that,but you need the room and except a largish power bill.

If I may suggest probably to implement a deep sand bed of about 4 to 5 inches on the display tank with a reasonable flow, say 40 times plus.

Maybe a mix of very fine grain on the first 3 inches and then a coarser sand on the top 1-2 inches

And I would increase the amount of live rock to about 1kg per 6 to 7 litres.

It has worked very good in my previous tanks and is like the natural way.....

This way I am running a bare bottom 150 ltr tank with 35 kg of live rock

Nitrates stay at around 10 ppm. I also use a nice skimmer....

You can also supplement this with you normal caulerpa algae on your refugium and prune it every week or so before it turns light brown. This will definitely keep your nitrates to almost undetectable levels.

Just a suggestion

I use those,sought of,they work OK.
I am changing things soon for a better version(i think so) of the supposed super nitrate, phosphate,nitrite and protien remover floated on some forums lately.
It will look like a small city,no people,just algae.