Coil Denitrification Chamber Q?

[kandr]

Well, my coil denitrification chamber has been up and running now for 6 weeks. I got the plans for it at this site:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/librar...y/aa092702.htm
This morning I ran a Nitrate test on the water exiting the chamber. I was surprised to see a reading of 20 PPM for Nitrates. I also tested the Nitrites on this water, and to my surprise, it tested very high as well.
My question is, if my nitrates are higher in the denitrator, then shouldn't the nitrites be lower than the readings I get in my display tank? Nitrates are supposed to be a product on arobic bacteria consuming the Nitrite. How is it that both have increased dramatically.
I did not have time to test Amonia before I had to leave for work.
This I will do first thing tonight. The only possible explanation I can see at this time is that there is arobic bacteria in my chamber that is consuming all my amonia and producing nitrates, but I still don't know where all the nitrite readings are comming from.
Has anyone had any success with this system?

 

[kandr]

I used 50 feet of 1/4 inch OD tubing. For the chamber, I used 24 inch tall 4" ID PCV. I packed the center with Bio-Balls. The drip rate was 90 DPM, but after getting these readings, I made it 120 DPM. I figured I will have to go on trial and error.
Just ran tests on my tank.
Amonia = .1 (Same as denitrator)
Nitrites = 0 (My test kit sucks. Looks like 0, but the color doesn't match any colors on the chart exactly)
Nitrate = 2.5 PPM
Denitrification Chamber output:
Amonia = .1
Nitrites = .5
Nitrate = Between 20 and 50 PPM.
I just did a 20% water change a few days ago. I have never been able to get amonia down to 0.

 

[kandr]

Thanks for your input. I'll pick up a prefilter for my Rio.
I'm using the venturi plug on the rio to power the coil. The Rio acts as my return from my Refugium.
I'll let you know how it looks next week.