EuroDriver
Member
I decided to install a biodenitrator, which I plan on installing in about a week or so. I will be using a Korallin S-1502. One of my concerns is the creation of acidic water or the lowering of the system's pH.
A the moment, I am running a calcium reactor (Korallin C-3002) with ARM aragonite and Brightwell Aquatics Neo-Mag. At the other end of the sump I have a chaeto chamber and a Vortex rxu1.5 with Rowaphos and a bag of activated carbon in one of the drain socks. This is on a 180 DT with a 60 gal sump filled a little over half.
So far, the overall system's pH has been holding at 8.1-8.2 while the effluent in the calcium reactor is at 6.6-6.75.
It has been suggested that aragonite be added in a second chamber or on top of the sulfur media to help raise the pH of the effluent and prevent calcium depletion. I will be using the Korallin media kit, which includes the sulfur and some aragonite. However, I have read that the pH of the sulfurized effluent is not low enough to dissolve the aragonite in order to create usable calcium and thus not all that helpful to stabilize the pH.
I was thinking of connecting the sulfur reactor outlet into the calcium reactor inlet, but some additional reading suggested that the flow required to keep the sulfur anaerobic will be too slow to make the calcium reactor effective.
Others have suggested dripping the biodenitrator effluent into the phosphate reactor's ferrous oxide media to neutralize the pH but that just doesn't seem feasible without some seriously drastic modifications to the reactor.
Another thought that occurred was to tee the biodenitrator effluent outlet into the inlet/feed hose of the calcium reactor, thus forcing the sulfur effluent into the calcium reactor, while keeping a sufficient flow into the calcium reactor. Not sure though if that would actually work (both reactors will be fed by a Tom's aqualifter pump).
Any suggestions/ideas on which of the approaches is best, or am I way over-thinking this and should just run the biodenitrator as a stand-alone from the other equipment, dripping into the sump?
A the moment, I am running a calcium reactor (Korallin C-3002) with ARM aragonite and Brightwell Aquatics Neo-Mag. At the other end of the sump I have a chaeto chamber and a Vortex rxu1.5 with Rowaphos and a bag of activated carbon in one of the drain socks. This is on a 180 DT with a 60 gal sump filled a little over half.
So far, the overall system's pH has been holding at 8.1-8.2 while the effluent in the calcium reactor is at 6.6-6.75.
It has been suggested that aragonite be added in a second chamber or on top of the sulfur media to help raise the pH of the effluent and prevent calcium depletion. I will be using the Korallin media kit, which includes the sulfur and some aragonite. However, I have read that the pH of the sulfurized effluent is not low enough to dissolve the aragonite in order to create usable calcium and thus not all that helpful to stabilize the pH.
I was thinking of connecting the sulfur reactor outlet into the calcium reactor inlet, but some additional reading suggested that the flow required to keep the sulfur anaerobic will be too slow to make the calcium reactor effective.
Others have suggested dripping the biodenitrator effluent into the phosphate reactor's ferrous oxide media to neutralize the pH but that just doesn't seem feasible without some seriously drastic modifications to the reactor.
Another thought that occurred was to tee the biodenitrator effluent outlet into the inlet/feed hose of the calcium reactor, thus forcing the sulfur effluent into the calcium reactor, while keeping a sufficient flow into the calcium reactor. Not sure though if that would actually work (both reactors will be fed by a Tom's aqualifter pump).
Any suggestions/ideas on which of the approaches is best, or am I way over-thinking this and should just run the biodenitrator as a stand-alone from the other equipment, dripping into the sump?
