No water change reef tank?

T206 · 10/24/2016, 01:33 AM

I recently have been spending time learning more about no water change systems that I have known about for years. Does anyone have any information on these or feedback? I am planning a HUGE reef tank and a no water change system like this is very appealing.

One company I came across was this one:

NatuReef Controlled Biological Denitrification Reactors

Does anyone know where I can buy this system? How much do they cost?

http://natureef.com/products/denitrifiers/

boxfishpooalot · 10/24/2016, 02:24 AM

That's probably a sulphur denitrator meant to lower no3. If you dont want to do water changes, id recommend a bb tank with an algae turf scrubber and large skimmer. Use carbon and ozone. The ats will keep no3/po4 at zero. The carbon/ozone will remove 70% of dom, and the skimmer will remove 20-30% dom. also incorporate a large settling cone bottkm tank. Mine removes daily lots of poo and fiah food. Doing this will take care of po4/no3 for no water change purposes. But you will also need a calcium reactor if keeping corals.

2smokes · 10/24/2016, 02:32 AM

Somme people are fans of the denitrators that use bacteria to reduce NO3 but my personal opinion is that thoose denitrators are a time bomb.They require to dose carbon source(alcohol) almost every day.A better biological filtration sistem could be achieved by using an algae scrubber.The algae scrubber needs less maintenance than a denitrator and the posibility to kill your aquarium inhabitants in case of a failure is smaller.Also bacteria need more no3 to reduce phosphates than algae.With a denitrator if you have phosphates high and nitrates 0 then it wont reduce your phosphates.

Reefer40b · 10/28/2016, 05:25 AM

Google GlennF reef tank he hasn't done a water change in years using the DSR method. I believe his tank is over 300 gallons. I believe there is a long thread on here about no water change with alot of info if you search for it

Rython · 10/29/2016, 06:09 AM

Do a google search for GlennF DSR. His thread here got shouted down, so he never really posted the details here (or maybe he did and that thread was closed). He explains it on another site though. It basically uses a wool sock on his drain pipe that is replaced every 3 days for nutrient export. Then he has a rigorous test schedule for a dozen or so chemicals, and doses as needed. Some of the chems are hard to get.

It's apparently doable, but it doesn't look like any less work than water changes to me.

10/24/2016, 02:24 AM	#2
boxfishpooalot Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: canada, Grande Praire, Ab Posts: 5,824	That's probably a sulphur denitrator meant to lower no3. If you dont want to do water changes, id recommend a bb tank with an algae turf scrubber and large skimmer. Use carbon and ozone. The ats will keep no3/po4 at zero. The carbon/ozone will remove 70% of dom, and the skimmer will remove 20-30% dom. also incorporate a large settling cone bottkm tank. Mine removes daily lots of poo and fiah food. Doing this will take care of po4/no3 for no water change purposes. But you will also need a calcium reactor if keeping corals. __________________ Its a good idea to have a refrence sample for alk test kits. 1.1350 grams of baking soda in 1gallon of distilled water=10dkh. Check your alkalinity test kit! Algae is Mother Natures phosphate remover Current Tank Info: 220 galon mixed reef.

10/24/2016, 02:32 AM	#3
2smokes Moved On Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: romania Posts: 515	Somme people are fans of the denitrators that use bacteria to reduce NO3 but my personal opinion is that thoose denitrators are a time bomb.They require to dose carbon source(alcohol) almost every day.A better biological filtration sistem could be achieved by using an algae scrubber.The algae scrubber needs less maintenance than a denitrator and the posibility to kill your aquarium inhabitants in case of a failure is smaller.Also bacteria need more no3 to reduce phosphates than algae.With a denitrator if you have phosphates high and nitrates 0 then it wont reduce your phosphates.

10/28/2016, 05:25 AM	#4
Reefer40b Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2016 Location: Fort Collins, CO Posts: 248	Google GlennF reef tank he hasn't done a water change in years using the DSR method. I believe his tank is over 300 gallons. I believe there is a long thread on here about no water change with alot of info if you search for it

10/29/2016, 06:09 AM	#5
Rython Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2016 Posts: 27	Do a google search for GlennF DSR. His thread here got shouted down, so he never really posted the details here (or maybe he did and that thread was closed). He explains it on another site though. It basically uses a wool sock on his drain pipe that is replaced every 3 days for nutrient export. Then he has a rigorous test schedule for a dozen or so chemicals, and doses as needed. Some of the chems are hard to get. It's apparently doable, but it doesn't look like any less work than water changes to me.