DIY "Anoxic Filtration System" eliminates nitrates? Anyone tried this?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shan_Evolved

Are you unable to get seachem flourite red? The center is actually only used to give iron for the cycle to establish or something (I forget exactly but it was a Novak video explaining). The most important part is to have the baked cat litter

---

He recently said baked is preferred because it doesn't create a mess in the filter/sump not that one is better than the other functionally.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Luke in Phoenix

Ah, nice find! At least that size is a starting point.

---

This too..
Check time stamps on photos!

PS: No clue why the pics are rotated lol.

I now have 12 2-4" mbunas in a 188 liter tank, 30 liter overhead SUMP, 3-4" thick coral gravel, ugf/plenum with a 4" lift tube as the doc recommends, 2 BCBs in the top SUMP with oil-dri and laterite. 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 40/80 ppm nitrate. My tap water has high nitrates so I tried using bottled drinking water and was shocked to discover it has high nitrites so switched back to tap water! Waiting for the nitrate eating "bugs" to kick in now.

Hey Rockfella, do you have any updates for us? Many thnx!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by teenka@centrum.cz

Hey Rockfella, do you have any updates for us? Many thnx!

---

15 mbunas and 5 giant danios in the same tank. Nothing great. Ammonia nitrite 0, nitrates 40/80 ppm. Bear in mind my tap water has 40/80 ppm nitrates. A big variable different in my case.

I didn't achieve the low zero nitrate reading for over four months of a BCB in my sump. Removed the basket and went back to my bio media setup. Recently Dr. Novak's video on making a BCB bag caught my attention. So I made two of his bags using Seachem's bags and placed them in my sump with the other bio media I had in there already. This time it worked. Nitrate is testing below 5ppm and a discus paired up and spawned, on the third spawn the eggs hatched and I have wrigglers for a few hours before they eat them. Okay, this has never happened in this tank for over 10 yrs and mind you my tap water here in San Antonio is very hard. So I assumed the BCB bags are working and I'm not changing a thing in the sump for now. https://youtu.be/GGFvadjidiA

How big were your BCBs and how big are your mesh bags? So weird it worked with the bags not the basket! If you check the detailed guide by Manky it is recommended to eventually get rid of biomedia and be fully on AFS. My issue is my tap water has nitrates and it is hard too.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by farebox

I didn't achieve the low zero nitrate reading for over four months of a BCB in my sump. Removed the basket and went back to my bio media setup. Recently Dr. Novak's video on making a BCB bag caught my attention. So I made two of his bags using Seachem's bags and placed them in my sump with the other bio media I had in there already. This time it worked. Nitrate is testing below 5ppm and a discus paired up and spawned, on the third spawn the eggs hatched and I have wrigglers for a few hours before they eat them. Okay, this has never happened in this tank for over 10 yrs and mind you my tap water here in San Antonio is very hard. So I assumed the BCB bags are working and I'm not changing a thing in the sump for now. https://youtu.be/GGFvadjidiA

---

Weirdly, the two bags are working better than the basket, bottom line is that everything is working just fine and I'm not changing anything out in my sump for now. Like I said before this is the first I had any discus lay eggs and hatch before in this tank.

I recently found out the "laterite" I bought was sold as laterite online but it is not really laterite. I believe the bacteria in the BCBs have not kicked in yet/they are not there due to lack of iron. Although I never have ammonia/nitrite spikes and all fish are doing great my nitrates remain at 40 ppm or maybe more after 1/2 weeks as my tap water has 40 ppm nitrates. I just got this:

https://www.jbl.de/en/products/detai...pol?country=us

and have a lot bigger BCB now. Let's see how it goes. If this works it will be epic because the filtration has to work a lot more to reduce tap water + fish waste nitrates! IDK what will happen but all fish in both tanks are thriving not spawning though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by teenka@centrum.cz

Hey Rockfella, do you have any updates for us? Many thnx!

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by farebox

Weirdly, the two bags are working better than the basket, bottom line is that everything is working just fine and I'm not changing anything out in my sump for now. Like I said before this is the first I had any discus lay eggs and hatch before in this tank.

---

I believe you now have more BCBs than before hence it may have worked. IDK if keeping clay in a mesh bag makes it more effective VS keeping it in a basket. Unless you removed the old BCB and now have the same quantity of clay in mesh bags then it maybe be better to use mesh bags instead of basket. Who knows?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by farebox

I didn't achieve the low zero nitrate reading for over four months of a BCB in my sump. Removed the basket and went back to my bio media setup. Recently Dr. Novak's video on making a BCB bag caught my attention. So I made two of his bags using Seachem's bags and placed them in my sump with the other bio media I had in there already. This time it worked. Nitrate is testing below 5ppm and a discus paired up and spawned, on the third spawn the eggs hatched and I have wrigglers for a few hours before they eat them. Okay, this has never happened in this tank for over 10 yrs and mind you my tap water here in San Antonio is very hard. So I assumed the BCB bags are working and I'm not changing a thing in the sump for now. https://youtu.be/GGFvadjidiA

---

Oh you did remove the baskets! I will also keep the clay in a mesh bag inside a basket. Thx.

Just out of curiosity how are the folks that made BCB's coming along with their tanks? Any updated info appreciated, thanks.

Here is an interesting discussion of BCB's and anoxic filtration: https://aquariumscience.org/index.ph...nosis-reactor/

Thanks for posting this info, I breezed thru it and saw he mentioned my tank. Well, a few months I removed the anoxic filtration system altogether. I tried three times and never got the results other users of the system claimed. Like to hear from any other folks using Dr. Novak's anoxic filtration and their success rate?

Yeah I never bought into this but remember seeing your system Roland. Thought if anyone one could make it work you would. I think the fifth post of this thread about says it all. 52 pages. WOW has this worked for anyone?