De-Nitrification/Skimmer

[dnorgard]

Hi;
I'm another apprentice at Saltwater, though I have had pretty good success at freshwater.

My question is this:

Can I run my tank waqter into a de-nitrifier and the ouput of the de-nitrifier into the intake of a protein skimmer, then back to the tank? Sounds good to me, but....

Dan

 

[Anonymous]

I would like to make the following comments.
1, denit. ususally have a very slow flow rate (gal per day) while skimmer have a much higher rate (gal per hour), so the output of the denit will only be a small fraction of the skimmer's input.

2, most people usually do not have much success in setting up a denit. unless is fish only and the tank is overstock, *and* water change is prohibitive. For most practical purpose, good skimmer and water change is sufficient without the use of denit..

 

[dnorgard]

Thanks, that makes sense now...I didn't realize how slow the denitrifier ran. I thought maybe I could run 4-5 lines in it to make up for the increased size of the skimmer but I guess that's out the window.
Just trying to compact things :?
Dan

 

[danmhippo]

You can compact the space by putting them side by side, but one does not have to flow into another. Either should be working independent of another.

Denitrator usually are not successful because you need to monitor the Oxygen depletion rate. Too much or too little will yield the unit unsucessful. Rate of flow through is critical and finetuning the simple control valve is not an easy task.