DIY Sulfur Denitrator

I've been thinking about automation as well. The only way I think it could be achieved is by monitoring ORP in the reactor and have a solenoid open or close to maintain the target ORP by adding the correct amount of water.

Does that make sense?
 
Ahh, dont you love when RC dumps your whole long reply with a "We're Sorry..."

Hit the back button and poof its all gone :mad:

Any way, I was thinking for fine control you'd need a 1/2" ball valve, restricted to 1/4" tubing (depending on the size of the reactor) hooked to a very slow actuator like an HVAC damper motor.

Would be fun to tune, trying to dial in the lag between bumping the valve and ORP change. PID on a PLC could do it.
 
Never - ever - press the back button. Click Refresh when you get the "We're Sorry" message. I've never lost a post with a refresh. An alert box will appear with something about resending, and you just say Okay.

FFrankie, I'm still watching this thread. ;)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13280896#post13280896 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thirschmann
I've been thinking about automation as well. The only way I think it could be achieved is by monitoring ORP in the reactor and have a solenoid open or close to maintain the target ORP by adding the correct amount of water.

Does that make sense?

it makes perfect sense

it's the best way to run a sulphur de-nitrator...
no more fiddling with those stupid mini ball valves or hose clamp regulator....

u will have more time to enjoy the display,rather then spending most of your time with your equipments.....

i have been running on automated setup for yrs with very minimum maintenace needed...(twice a year or at most 3)

the ORP changes are only -20points differents depending on the flow rate for your sulphur de-nitrator's effluent....

cheers
 
Question, I may have missed it during my review of this incredible thread. When cycling the denitrator do you do that attached to the main display/sump or stand alone?

Most posts seem to allude to it attached to the MD then I saw another one (or so) that seemed to say it was 'being cycled and should beup and running on the main display soon'
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13327223#post13327223 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tawolcott
Question, I may have missed it during my review of this incredible thread. When cycling the denitrator do you do that attached to the main display/sump or stand alone?

Most posts seem to allude to it attached to the MD then I saw another one (or so) that seemed to say it was 'being cycled and should beup and running on the main display soon'

I think thats really up to you but cycling is so fast with these I guess there is no harm on letting it drip into the sump/display. You just need to monitor the no3 and no2 levels for adjustment during that time and degas. If you are afraid of getting any no2 into the tank I would recomend letting the effluent run into another bucket or container and once it finishes cycling go ahead and let it return back to the sump/display. Guidlines are on page 14 if I remember correctly for the DIY Denitrator.
 
djfrankie,
I have a question about your sulfur denitrator.
Do you use a water pump(like Tom Aquatics Aqua Lifter\Dosing Pump) to feed water from the tank at 1/2" CPVC tee? (I meant that it is the water-in part on your diagram.)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13349123#post13349123 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by takayan
djfrankie,
I have a question about your sulfur denitrator.
Do you use a water pump(like Tom Aquatics Aqua Lifter\Dosing Pump) to feed water from the tank at 1/2" CPVC tee? (I meant that it is the water-in part on your diagram.)

I fed the reactor via a tee off my main pump (Gen-x 4)

HTH,
djfrankie
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13248881#post13248881 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thirschmann
I'm back on it, my nitrates creeped back up some I've put my reactor back on line.

I've been having a hell of a time getting a steady drip rate so after trying a few different ball valves and 2 different feed lines I've started using a Peri pump for my feed and it works AWESOME!

Highly recommended though a little pricey.

I hope my reactor cycles soon, I've had it up and running for almost 5 days and nitrates are still high, it is a large reactor though....
are you dosing any liquid carbons ?
 
Hi everyone,

What a great thread! Quite a long read at 53 pages but it brought me up to speed.

Ive been needing to get rid of nitrates in my freshwater aquarium...will a sulfur denitrator still work in freshwater conditions?

The problem is its quite a small tank (200L) and some what over stocked and Im not too keen to throw fish out :rolleyes: So yeah... it get nitrate up really quick in there.

The best I can do to control nitrates (with only a once a week water change) involves greater than 50% changes which is not very good (pH swingss etc). So Ive been researching denitators. The simple ones which are basically are a coiled pipe (~25 foot long) that has slow water flow through it seem to be pretty much useless - further more this type or any type of denitrator besides the sulfur denitrator require the bacteria to be fed with alcohol/glucose which is a pain. So now after recently discovering the sulfur denitator which requires some what minimal or long intervals between servicing makes it ideal for me :D

Also I wont have to add glucose/alcohol either as the sulfur is the energy for the bacteria. This coupled with the short cycling times means I just had to build a little "proof of concept model" which is what I did...

I used a 3 litre juice bottle which was 50/50 filled with sulfur and crushed coral (the only CaCO3 compound available locally) and I put a T junction on my canister filters output which went to feed into the bottom of Juice bottle (via a 19mm hose) The output from the top was an air hose which went back into the tank. To regulate flow I used air hose valve (the one that squashes the hose).

Initially I left the unit fun on full flow to pretty much clean out the media and air pockets (all of this went into a bucket). Once done I set the unit to 1 drip per second and connected it to the tank. Its been like that for ~33 hours and so far the denitrator output is a slight shade lighter than the tank (ie less nitrates from the denitator).

Id get a photo - well in fact I did, but Its giving me hell trying to upload it to imageshack or photobucket. Anyway, the output from the denitator has less nitrate than from the tank. (Tank is sitting at ~20ppm).

More so, my cheapo "proof of concept denitrator" doesn't have a recirculator pump meaning that cycle times should be longer? or efficiency will be less? or both?

ATM Ive got around 1.3L of sulfur and once gravel rockets etc are taken into account my tank has only 175L of water in it. So I'm pretty close to the 1% of tank volume rule.

So whats left for me to do now? My plans are to wait until nitrates reach zero from the denitator output and then increase flow a bit. If then my little experimental denitator is a success Ill build a proper one.

However, should my nitrates NOT reach zero does anyone have any ideas of what to do? Does any one else use a sulfur denitator for fresh water aquariums?
 
Yeah everything has come to a very slow process for me too, since my boy arrived. No 15 dayer for me like Marc's old move, more like 15 months..heheheheh

Your tank is looking sweet, I would definetly put in as many late nighters as you can before the little one arrives.
 
A tribute to DJ Frankie......

My DJ Denitrator in action. I'd like to give a toast to you. Thanks Frankie.

DJDen.JPG
DJDen2.jpg
 
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That's awesome. If we ever do an article on this topic, may we use these pictures in Reefkeeping Magazine? You'd get photo credit of course. :)
 
After many months i cant get the thing to cycle so last weekend i took it all apart and loaded the whole thing with sulfer. I have a seperate reactor for arragonite. Now im battling the leak that doesnt want to go away LOL The bottom of the reactor started to leak so ive been building up PVC glue to get it to stop. I hope to have it back online in the next few days.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13394504#post13394504 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cb747
After many months i cant get the thing to cycle so last weekend i took it all apart and loaded the whole thing with sulfer. I have a seperate reactor for arragonite. Now im battling the leak that doesnt want to go away LOL The bottom of the reactor started to leak so ive been building up PVC glue to get it to stop. I hope to have it back online in the next few days.

cb........Ya I know the frustration your going thru and yes you are on the right track by completly filling the SR with sulfur and using the 2nd unit for ARM as that is exactly what i had to do and it worked. Just for the record during water tests this am Nitrate was 0.00 ppm (using a LaMotte kit) not a trace of pink color in the test tube, so you see you will get it. By the way mine took over 4 months to totally cycle ( Started 02/19/08 out of a 5 gal bucket, hooked to tank on 06/27/08) whew it seems like ages ago, but worth all the challenges, as there was no way water changes where ever going to do this. Just keep your eye on your pH and alk as they are going to be effected in a BIG way, controllable with additions I feel.

SaltyDog
 
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