Denitrators

I was doing some searching and reading on various aquaria realted stuff
last night and came across these plans for a 'coil denitrator'

http://saltaquarium.about.com/librar...itratornew.htm

As you can see from the domain, it is in the salt water section of
about.com. If you click on the thumbnail pictures of the plans, you can
see each page of the article (I hate the layout of about.com BTW).

Do these things "work?" That is, doesn't the nitrate have to turn into
something?! What is the waste product of the de nitrifying bacteria?
Wouldn't the TDS levels still rise? If so, doesn't this mean water
changes are still vital? If you are the type of person that only
changes water when the things you test for change (rise in nitrates,
nitrites blah blah blah) then I can see this just disguising the need
to do water changes. Am I making any sense?

Of course I would never DREAM of slacking on my water changes (before
MG says something)

Adam wrote:

Do these things "work?" That is, doesn't the nitrate have to turn into
something?

I don't know how they work, but the goal is to turn the nitrates (NO3) into
gaseous nitrogen and oxygen.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

I don't know how they work, but the goal is to turn the nitrates (NO3)
into gaseous nitrogen and oxygen.

wrong. N2 and H2O

2NO3- + 12H+ -----(enzymatic)----- N2 + 6H2O



George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

"Stoutman" [email protected] wrote in message m...
I don't know how they work, but the goal is to turn the nitrates (NO3)
into gaseous nitrogen and oxygen.

wrong. N2 and H2O

2NO3- + 12H+ -----(enzymatic)----- N2 + 6H2O

And how did you get 12H+ on your left side ?

-- "Pszemol" wrote in message
...
"Stoutman" [email protected] wrote in message
m...
I don't know how they work, but the goal is to turn the nitrates (NO3)
into gaseous nitrogen and oxygen.

wrong. N2 and H2O

2NO3- + 12H+ -----(enzymatic)----- N2 + 6H2O

And how did you get 12H+ on your left side ?

The above equation is the overall reduction of nitrate to nitrogen gas and
water. It is an enzymatic reaction that involves the enzyme nitrate
reductase (among others). The H+ that you are questioning are picked up
from general acids from within the enzyme's active site (i.e. histidine
residues).

Stoutman wrote:

wrong. N2 and H2O

Where's the hydrogen come from? You can split two NO3 molecules into one N2 and
three O2 molecules.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

wrong. N2 and H2O

Where's the hydrogen come from?

See my response to Pszemol.

You can split two NO3 molecules into one N2 and three O2 molecules.

Who/what can? The NO3 is broken down enzymatically. The enzyme(s) do not
split NO3 into N2 and O2.


George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

NO3 is not split into N2 and O2 it is broken down enzymatically into N2 and
H2O.

"Adam" wrote in message ps.com...
Do these things "work?" That is, doesn't the nitrate have to turn into
something?! What is the waste product of the de nitrifying bacteria?

Yes, they do work, but having a properly working sand bed
will do the same in a more biological way...
I have more problems with phosphates than nitrates in my tanks.

You should not need to do a water change on a properly set
up reef tank because of nitrates. Your live rock and live
sand should be taking care of that.

The end product of a denitrator is N2 the oxygen in NO3 is
taken away converting the NO3 into NO2, and the oxygen
from NO2 is taken away converting it into N2.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Adam wrote on 9/14/2006 8:53 AM:
I was doing some searching and reading on various aquaria realted stuff
last night and came across these plans for a 'coil denitrator'

http://saltaquarium.about.com/librar...itratornew.htm

As you can see from the domain, it is in the salt water section of
about.com. If you click on the thumbnail pictures of the plans, you can
see each page of the article (I hate the layout of about.com BTW).

Do these things "work?" That is, doesn't the nitrate have to turn into
something?! What is the waste product of the de nitrifying bacteria?
Wouldn't the TDS levels still rise? If so, doesn't this mean water
changes are still vital? If you are the type of person that only
changes water when the things you test for change (rise in nitrates,
nitrites blah blah blah) then I can see this just disguising the need
to do water changes. Am I making any sense?

Of course I would never DREAM of slacking on my water changes (before
MG says something)