DIY Denitrator Idea?

[Wallace]

The reactor being $33 isn't that bad of a deal... think about it, you would probably end up paying close to $20 for PVC fittings and glues etc. anyway, plus your time. Although you could most likely build a much bigger filter without spending much more though. Anhow, the point is, its the dosing pump at $220 that kills.

In regards to powerhead and wavemaker... is there even a wave maker that allow you to set it to turn on for 1 second then turn off for X hours? I think most waive maker timer are based on minutes. So even if you set it at the minimum, at 1 minute with a small powerhead we would've likely still flushed the whole **** thing (unless its a 5 gallon bucket we are building)... now, if the unit CAN be flushed, then I could've just go back to my very original design and use X-10 timers (which I already have).



W.

[dskidmore]

The greater volume would work for you here. You could get away for a higher flow rate without disrupting the anaerobic range.

I've realized that we can calculate the maxiumu flow range, if we pre-determine the boundary between the aerobic and anaerobic ranges. (May not be optimal, as I don't know what the optimal ratio of areobic to anaerobic volumes should be.) You never want to displace more liquid at one time than the volume of the aerobic range, because then you'll be pushing fresh water into the anerobic range.

The low end powerheads loose alot of power when pushing water uphill. Se if you can find some performance curves that get low enough at the hight distance from your aquarium to the top of the reactor.