DIY Sulfur Denitrator

I built a nice Sulfur Denitrator using plans in this thread. Thanks a lot. It worked great but I had to leave for internship this summer and removed the unit...my wife was worried if something went wrong she wont be able to take care of things !
...and my nitrates have crept up to 50. I am thinking of hooking the unit back up to bring my nitrates down. I have a few questions.

1. I was using water input to the reactor which was T-ed off from my return pump. So this was putting a lot more water inside the reactor than coming out. When I open the air vent on top to release H2S of the reactor I get water leaking out. Is this normal?

2. Has anyone noticed any significant changes to corals (good or bad) using the reactor? I know keeping Nitrates low is good for some corals and keeps algae at bay but was wondering if someone has before and after pictures of their tanks.

3. Is it possible to use other additives like ammino acids etc with the reactor?

Thanks for the help.
 
Since running mine I am below 1PPM now!!! I dont think I will ever have a tank without one of these again.

Barebottom006.jpg
 
Moony,

Strictly speaking, it is not possible to put more water in than comes out. But you would be putting a lot of unnecessary pressure on the unit, so when you open the purge valve that presssure will drive water out. You could use a small powerhead to feed it, or simply put a valve on the line that feeds the unit.

Todd
 
Thanks a lot Todd. I will do that. I might use a small pump and keep the reactor outside my sump.
Do you think 1.5 lbs of media would be enough for a 75 gal tank?
 
I have mine T'd off of a monster pump with a ball valve, which deals with the pressure issue nicely and allows for disconnect without having to remove any pumps, etc... I really like it... and, since the reactor only uses a small amount of water, when you're pushing more than 1000gph, it doesn't really impact much, BUT it is one less pump in the sump, which is also nice.
 
Well.... I have a 65 & 75 piggybacking off of one monster sump, for a total water volume (after rock and sand displacement, aprox) of 120 gallons, and a pretty heavy bio load of fish and I'm a tank mom who likes fat fish, so I built mine for "more work," so to speak... so I'm probably no t the best model to follow. BUT I think there are good recommendations on the first couple of pages if I remember right.... Not trying to be a pain, but I built mine for a 200 gallon system.

"Where did you buy the media?

I bought it from premiumaquatics for $55. It is exactly the same media midwestaquatics uses in their reactors. The media fills about a 1/4 of reactor and I used a bunch of ARM on top since the low ph helps dissolve the aragonite into more Calcium and Alk."

Caribsea's recommendations:
"Volume of reactor:
The volume of the Sulfur reactor should be about 1% the volume of the system if the NO3 levels are below 50 mg/l or 2% in systems where the initial concentration is greater than 50 mg/l."

So, based on that, 1 gallon would probably be enough to start, and then like djfrankie has said, once your trates come down you can remove some of the media (and I would assume you could rinse it really well, let it dry, and then store it).

Hope some of this helps! D:

C
"
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13772086#post13772086 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by moonyguy
I built a nice Sulfur Denitrator using plans in this thread. Thanks a lot. It worked great but I had to leave for internship this summer and removed the unit...my wife was worried if something went wrong she wont be able to take care of things !
...and my nitrates have crept up to 50. I am thinking of hooking the unit back up to bring my nitrates down. I have a few questions.

1. I was using water input to the reactor which was T-ed off from my return pump. So this was putting a lot more water inside the reactor than coming out. When I open the air vent on top to release H2S of the reactor I get water leaking out. Is this normal?

2. Has anyone noticed any significant changes to corals (good or bad) using the reactor? I know keeping Nitrates low is good for some corals and keeps algae at bay but was wondering if someone has before and after pictures of their tanks.

3. Is it possible to use other additives like ammino acids etc with the reactor?

Moony,

Welcome back, shut'n down was the right thing to do, you just don't know what can go wrong.....be right back the NC game is starting...






Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
 
Hey ask Salty Dog.... He's a frequent poster on this thread too and he has a 75 gallon!



Moony.... on supplements, you can use whatever you want, it's not like a skimmer, which will rapidly remove a lot of supplements like AA's if you don't cut off air for a bit at least. The Sulfur reactor simply works on what becomes trates, so if you're dosing heavy enough that your bio load increases and you have more organics converting to NO3, then at that point the reactor will get to working on them, which is a good thing.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13772086#post13772086 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by moonyguy
I built a nice Sulfur Denitrator using plans in this thread. Thanks a lot. It worked great but I had to leave for internship this summer and removed the unit...my wife was worried if something went wrong she wont be able to take care of things !
...and my nitrates have crept up to 50. I am thinking of hooking the unit back up to bring my nitrates down. I have a few questions.

1. I was using water input to the reactor which was T-ed off from my return pump. So this was putting a lot more water inside the reactor than coming out. When I open the air vent on top to release H2S of the reactor I get water leaking out. Is this normal?

2. Has anyone noticed any significant changes to corals (good or bad) using the reactor? I know keeping Nitrates low is good for some corals and keeps algae at bay but was wondering if someone has before and after pictures of their tanks.

3. Is it possible to use other additives like ammino acids etc with the reactor?

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

Moony,

Sorry about that recent post....I was in big hurry to see the start of the NC game.

Now first, as 32flavors stated using the ball valve to control initial flow input is the way to go. As you stated, you got it work so you are no rookie @ this, but as a reminder as you get Zero Nitrates you must monitor your pH and Alk as they will be adversly affected (lowered of course) and putting ARM in there will help but only in very small ways, so be carefull.

If you built the std 24"X 4" unit then one container of, for example of CaribSea LSM, which is "one gallon" will be more than enough, leave approx. 4" or so of more for ARM on top. IMO you really can't use to much (To get my VERY Nitrate 200+ppm tank down I actually used a 2nd reactor also full, in series with the orginal dj Denitrifier once down under 50PPM or so I unhooked it and finished up just the one) but as you get to Zero you will have go into "maintaince mode" by reducing sulfur. Watch out for H2S or better yet "sniff out carefully" for it, you'll know it for sure, just check for stink when you "degass", one way is to place a short piece of tubing on the vent valve, submerge it in some water and watch the N2 gas bubbles (which will soon disappear) as the unit cycles to LOWER and LOWER Nitrates.

As for ??? on ammino acids or what have you, I'm not qualified in that area....sorry !!

As for before and after pics let me try on post a couple..

Taken near the start of project:

173564FISH_Pictures_003__Large___Small_.jpg


A recent photo:

173564After_alge_Battle_01.jpg


Moony good luck and oh ya those pics are the first I posted on this project:rollface: :rollface: You can see it really worked and once again we all owe a BIG THANKS to djfrankie for all his work on this great thread.

Dick
 
I have Caribsea media...called Live Sulfur Media. Once I figure out the amount of media I am going to start the unit running next week after I fix some leaks.
Thanks for the help guys.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13772086#post13772086 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by moonyguy
I built a nice Sulfur Denitrator using plans in this thread. Thanks a lot. It worked great but I had to leave for internship this summer and removed the unit...my wife was worried if something went wrong she wont be able to take care of things !
...and my nitrates have crept up to 50. I am thinking of hooking the unit back up to bring my nitrates down. I have a few questions.

1. I was using water input to the reactor which was T-ed off from my return pump. So this was putting a lot more water inside the reactor than coming out. When I open the air vent on top to release H2S of the reactor I get water leaking out. Is this normal?

2. Has anyone noticed any significant changes to corals (good or bad) using the reactor? I know keeping Nitrates low is good for some corals and keeps algae at bay but was wondering if someone has before and after pictures of their tanks.

3. Is it possible to use other additives like ammino acids etc with the reactor?

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

Hi,

1. If your unit is completely cycled then very little, if any, H2S will come out of the vent and you'll immediately notice water coming out since it is a pressurized unit. Yes, it is normal.

2. Well, that really depends on who you talk to. Some people who run very low nutrient systems, for example Zeovit, like to have some nitrates in there in the numbers of 5-15 ppm and some people swear by very low nitrates. I like to mimic mother nature in that sense and try to maintain them as close as possible to undetectable.

3. Amino acids would be ok.


HTH,
djfrankie
 
32flavors:

Thanks for helping out!

Saltydog64:

Who would have known you had rocks in there?
It was a really nice macroalgae tank in there :eek: ...LOL

Thanks for always covering my back man :beer:

I was asked to write an article for reefkeeping magazine a while back for all you guys to use as a reference, but I have been extremely busy lately since I opened my own LFS here in Miami.
I also work midnights at my regular job (ITS) so 18 hour days have really taken a toll on me lately.

So, I wanted to take some time and thank you guys for helping out other members that have issues or questions!!!

THANK YOU!

ps. the article is halfway done...Melev ;)

djfrankie
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13774815#post13774815 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by moonyguy
Thanks a lot Frankie. Any more suggestions on the amount of media?
Click to expand...

I see you're also running a 40 gallon frag. Is it attached to your main tank?

djfrankie
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13774829#post13774829 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by djfrankie
32flavors:

Thanks for helping out!

Saltydog64:

Who would have known you had rocks in there?
It was a really nice macroalgae tank in there :eek: ...LOL

Thanks for always covering my back man :beer:

I was asked to write an article for reefkeeping magazine a while back for all you guys to use as a reference, but I have been extremely busy lately since I opened my own LFS here in Miami.
I also work midnights at my regular job (ITS) so 18 hour days have really taken a toll on me lately.

So, I wanted to take some time and thank you guys for helping out other members that have issues or questions!!!

THANK YOU!

ps. the article is halfway done...Melev ;)



djfrankie
Click to expand...
:


dj,

Always glad to help, even if it's in some small way, as w/o all your help I would still be mired in sea of "GREEN" so to speak :rollface: :rollface:.

Good Luck on your new adventure w/ the LFS as I'm sure you will excell @ this with your knowledge and perservance....

Dick
 
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