Could Biodentrification be the holy grail us hobbyist have been searching for?

1fishjones

1fishjones

Premium member
I recently was given the chance to upgrade, and want to be 100% certain of not repeating any mistakes. I also want have the healthiest badass tank around. This where the holy grail/ bio denitrification part comes in.
So I was watching this YouTube show where a guy named Thomas travels around the country visiting the LFS.
In this particular episode Thomas was in Miami on the way to pick up his new Reef Savvy tank. There he was invited to a Cuban restaurant where he meets the owner, also a hobbyist, who then invites him to his home to check out his tank. The tank was awesome, very nice, but heavily stocked, thankfully Thomas asked him about their husbandry routine. Let me tell you I almost fell off the couch when I heard him say they hadn't done a water change in over a year. This really got my attention, I'm the kind of guy who's afraid to go more than five days without one and he just said a year. And oh yeah, no nitrates or phosphates to speak of. Unbelievable right! As it turned out they attribute most of their success to a bio dentrinator unit made by Nutrareef of Florida. I couldn't wait to check this out so I immediately started searching blogs. There were no negatives to be found. I thought how could this be, is this something new,. And if not why isn't everyone using one.
I figured they must be super expensive, they're not, but there also not cheap. After doing some math I realized their most expensive unit would pay for it self in salt savings alone in less than a year on a medium sized system. Just think about the work and the time saved, it would be priceless. Please I have to know more. Does anyone here know anything about them? Maybe you use one or know someone that does.
These units are very similar to the systems used at waste plants. They work by exchanging several gallons a couple time a day feeding waste to the special micro organisms which in turn release them as harmless nitrogen gas. The systems consist of a controller/feeder, a reaction chamber, and a water diverter. The controller/feeder doses Nitrogone via a peristaltic pump through a micro-bore tube and self regulates. It also provides a signal that activates the diverter allowing water to enter the reaction chamber for a predetermined length of time. From what I've learned so far it takes several weeks to get this thing going but once you're there it looks like you're on easy street with very little maintenance.

Give it up, Whattaya know.

You can watch the video here:

Ep.2 Picking up My Reef Savvy Tank

[video=youtube;eGUvGIeRQtU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGUvGIeRQtU[/video]

Please let me is know what you think.

Thanks!

If you don't want to watch the whole episode you can find it if you start at the 15:00 mark.


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1fishjones

1fishjones

Premium member
I know, it's almost unbelievable. I can't wait to see what everyone thinks.


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tomek77pl

tomek77pl

Member
That was an insane monti! I would love to know more about the bio dentrinator system. Looks very interesting and very promising.
 
Sparky312

Sparky312

Member
I'm kind of skeptical of no-water-change systems, but you can't argue with success. It goes to show you that there are a lot of different roads you can take to a healthy reef. Cool vid
 
Sparky312

Sparky312

Member
Gorgeous tank, and thanks for sharing that thread too. So what happened with your daily water change system, did you keep it up and did you notice any difference?
 
DJE

DJE

Active member
Sparky312 said:
Gorgeous tank, and thanks for sharing that thread too. So what happened with your daily water change system, did you keep it up and did you notice any difference?
Click to expand...
Thanks. I got lazy and only used my water change system for a few and then just shut it down. It's practically brand new still. Lol. But as I mentioned in my thread what works for me might not work for everyone else.


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anarchy

anarchy

Active member
I hardly ever do water changes. This last time I went 6 months between water changes then changed 20 gallons
 
Spartanman22

Spartanman22

Well-known member
This is essentially the same concept as any carbon source dosing. Your a feeding a bacterial mass to convert nitrate and phosphate into biomass which then gets pulled out through organic skimming.

Biodenitrification is happening constantly within the reef aquaria. Some people choose to supplement it by vodka/vinegar dosing, sugar dosing, biopellets, zeovit methods. The underlying principle of providing an organic food source to propel bacterial growth certainly isn't new, and many methods to do so have been employed by hobbyists for quite some time now.

You can certainly go long periods of time without water changes. The only reason I do a water change is if I feel the need to siphon detritus out of the sump (1/month maybe) or to replenish trace elemts like strontium, potassium, iodine, etc. that aren't commonly dosed for. No amount of Biodenitrification will replenish trace elements regardless of what method you choose.

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Mjl714

Mjl714

Well-known member
1Fish,

Nice thread, I look forward to its direction. Do you know of a protein skimmer is involved in these systems?
 
1fishjones

1fishjones

Premium member
In the video they attribute their success to the denitrifier along with good skimming. Though the NatuReef website doesn't mention protein skimmers at all, I personally wouldn't be without one.


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1fishjones

1fishjones

Premium member
Mike how are you? lol I just came to check on the thread & realized it was you. While I got you on here I want to thank you again for the beautiful tank and other nice stuff, so nice the wife didn't even give me a hard time this time!
Also, those frags I have for you are coming along nicely, should have a few ready to bring over sometime next week. And if you could use some Rotifers let me know I'll bring some with the coral.


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Mjl714

Mjl714

Well-known member
I'm great. I thought you 'd see more input on this topic. I bet its still coming. The frags sound great, thanks for cleaning them up, I'm looking forward to them.

How are your setups doing?
 
1fishjones

1fishjones

Premium member
Fair to midland thanks! The Flame Angel really is beautiful, unfortunately he's also a tank wrecker. So far he's buried my frags, which we can't look for at least until we know where the starfish is. Plus I'm pretty sure he ate a few hermit crabs, I'm told they do that sometimes. When we were picking him out Tim said the one he had in the past was in a smaller tank, 20 gallons I think, & he never had any problems. One thing for sure, we'll definitely be using a heavier substrate on the new set up. This Oolite blows... around way to much, it's worse since adding the new fish. The Angel took over the reef right away, he's definitely the boss, really stirs things up. We put in two mini pumps to try to slow the sand storms down. They helped some but now we're worried about the flow. I'm not complaining, it could be a lot worse. I only have to deal with with this until I have the money to finish the build.


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1fishjones

1fishjones

Premium member
Fair to midland thanks! The Flame Angel really is beautiful, unfortunately he's also a tank wrecker. So far he's buried my frags, which we can't look for at least until we know where the starfish is. Plus I'm pretty sure he ate a few hermit crabs, I'm told they do that sometimes. When we were picking him out Tim said the one he had in the past was in a smaller tank, 20 gallons I think, & he never had any problems. One thing for sure, we'll definitely be using a heavier substrate on the new set up. This Oolite blows... around way to much, it's worse since adding the new fish. The Angel took over the reef right away, he's definitely the boss, really stirs things up. We put in two mini pumps to try to slow the sand storms down. They helped some but now we're worried about the flow. I'm not complaining, it could be a lot worse. I only have to deal with with this until I have money to finish the build.


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Mjl714

Mjl714

Well-known member
Agree on the sand, too much flow and its all over. Didn't know the Angel might be a beautiful trouble maker. We are probably going to try one on the right side 75g, where I dont plan to have much it could wreck, but listen to your advice.
 
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