DIY Sulfur Denitrator

[saltydog64]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14455214#post14455214 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lonnie
How does this sound?

I built my reactor & put in 2.5lb of midwest aquatics sulphur, along with 6.5lb of Aragonite.

Ran it for 1.5 days so far with it isolated from the tank with no effluent drip. I used tank water with nitrate reading of 50.

Recirculating with a 1048

It now has nitrate readings in the 25 range with nitrites pegged.

Should I leave it alone until the nitrites drop before I start to drip effluent, or should I start to allow some flow into the unit?

Lonnie...........

Your method, well not the "normal" one for starting the cycle will work, ( I assume your concerned about Nitrite entering the system), BUT you must be aware of H2S forming (rotten egg stink) when it occurs and it will, increase FR for several hours until gone then reset FR (flow rate) to 1 dps until zero Nitrate (if and when you do get H2S Nitrite will be zero but might not stay there on the reset. You can always start the FR and discharge into a 5 Gal bucket.....this works until the FR is increased and keeping up with bucket becomes a PITA,,,so to speak...

Good Luck and keep posting

Dick

 

[Lonnie]

I had read that this was the best way for it to go anerobic. I have only a few bubbles of gas & it does not smell at all.

I was under the impression that it would start to work somewhat already. Been 2 days & it seems like readings are getting higher. Nitrates are very high (about 50) & nitrites are off the chart.

Should I start to flow water or wait until the readings start to recede first? I have a huge Rubbermaid can I can drip into.

 

[NCNBilly]

Welp, mine has done this twice now - as soon as it breaks in I get a ton of gas produced. I degassed - measured almost 30ml of displaced water. Effluent measured 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates. A few hours later, I checked if there was any gas - nothing - so decided to measure the effluent again to confirm my suspicion.

Nitrites through the roof again... I'm not sure what to do from here. I have to degas, but it seems to crash the reactor when I do.

 

[saltydog64]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14459561#post14459561 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lonnie
I had read that this was the best way for it to go anerobic. I have only a few bubbles of gas & it does not smell at all.

I was under the impression that it would start to work somewhat already. Been 2 days & it seems like readings are getting higher. Nitrates are very high (about 50) & nitrites are off the chart.

Should I start to flow water or wait until the readings start to recede first? I have a huge Rubbermaid can I can drip into.

Lonnie.........

If you leave it the way it is ( no flow) ...........IT has to go totally anerobic eventually and stink......the problem with that is your forcing the bacteria to consume what O2 it can from the little water in there and you will think it has cycled BUT it has not....what we must do is get the bacteria to grow and cycle with the TANK water so yes start your FR @ 1 DPS and just let it drip in to your tub......it could cycle in 2 or 3 days or 2 or 3 weeks.....no two systems are the same....

Look @ it this way as you drip in to tub and replace this water with fresh SW it's like a slow water change....IMO

Dick

 

[Steve 926]

Lonnie :
I have about 60 gal total volume, I use 1 ltr. ( 2lbs) of the midwest media. LSM is ok, it just may take longer to cycle. eventually I may remove 1/2 of it. ( depends on who you talk too, & what you read ) this is my second go around with the reactor, I cleaned it out after a 9~10 month flawless run to check it out. the re start cycle was about 3 days.

Start the drip into your container ( 1~2 dps) overnight. keep some new SW handy to top off what has been displaced.
Then place the drip into your sump at the same rate & then
LEAVE IT ALONE !! I can not stress this enough.

Check the NO3 at the drip in a few day's, 0~5 ppm, increase the drip rate & then ( you guessed it ) LEAVE IT ALONE !!!!!!!

This procedure will continue several times until the N03
starts to lower in your display ( the higher the NO3, the longer it takes) do not exceed the recommended flow rate per media amount
Eventually you get it down to a level that is acceptable.
I do not strive for 0 NO3, 2~5 ppm works well for me.
Do remember to check your Alk/dkh regularly

NCNBilly:
Degas what is need,( the replaced water within the reactor will affect the readings temporarily) & then LEAVE IT ALONE !!!
continue to check & increase the drip as necessary every few days
The key here is to have PATIENCE & allow the reactor to catch up to the rate it is being feed.

It took me several attempts at it before I realized to just "LEAVE IT ALONE"

The system doe's work, the toughest part of it is to LEAVE IT ALONE until it catches up, before you start to play with it again.

I am no expert on this, DJ is the authorial voice on this thread.
I can only relate what has worked best for myself & the friends I have built units for.

Good Luck ( L I A )

Steve
:smokin:

 

[saltydog64]

Steve....................

Couldn't have said it better.............." LEAVE IT ALONE" is the hardest thing we all most do BUT it seems as Yanks we what instant gratification……..I guess it's in our DNA........

 

[NCNBilly]

So I should leave it alone?

I had an epiphany this weekend - I've been testing the effluent by extracting 5-7 ml from the degassing port. This small amount was introducing enough O2 to keep the cycle going (and of course, I'm testing every day - duh).

I think I had my first senior moment at age 34.

 

[Steve 926]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14462319#post14462319 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NCNBilly
So I should leave it alone?

I had an epiphany this weekend - I've been testing the effluent by extracting 5-7 ml from the degassing port. This small amount was introducing enough O2 to keep the cycle going (and of course, I'm testing every day - duh).

I think I had my first senior moment at age 34.

Experience is something you don't get, until just after you need it .

LEAVE IT ALONE !!!

 

[Lonnie]

Thanks guys, I'll start the drip tonight. I have 40gal of fresh salt water mixed up & a second empty Rubbermaid can to drip into.

Was going to change some water anyway.....

I asked because I thought it would start to cycle & show some results isolated..... There is virtually no gas, nitrites have increased, leading me to believe it was starting to do something, but the readings never dropped.

 

[NCNBilly]

I spoke too soon - all is back as it should be reading 0 NO3.

I bumped up a tiny bit from 1 drip per 3 secs to 1 drip per 2 seconds. If all is reading zero tomorrow, should I go up to 1 per second or wait another day?

 

[saltydog64]

NCNBilly..............

WAIT more day just to be sure................ then bump it up one more drop.... wait and so on, before you know it you will have slow steady stream.......just wait.....

Come on spring....................

Dick

 

[Lonnie]

Drip...drip...drip...
Wait 3 days...

The anticipation builds.... will my money be well spent or as beneficial as investing in the stock market?

 

[saltydog64]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14468211#post14468211 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lonnie
Drip...drip...drip...
Wait 3 days...

The anticipation builds.... will my money be well spent or as beneficial as investing in the stock market?

Lonnie............

Your $$$ and Nitrate will have something in common..... as they both head to ZERO.......:rollface: :rollface:

 

[Lonnie]

Adding up the cost of Nitrite test kits already.... fingers crossed.

Slowly dripping my way to a working sulfur reactor.

FYI, if my design starts working well, I may have a spare reactor for sale..... couldn't resist buying contractor packs of fittings, so I basically have enough to build 3 complete units, less pumps &
chemicals.

 

[Black71gp]

well mine has been at 0 for a while.. tank is down from 160ish to around 10... nitrate reactor is open full off a MJ1200.. but getting some white build up inside the reactor so might need to tap into the return pump to get a little more flow through it so things dont go bad...... took a lot longer to cycle this time but man AMAZING how well these little beauties work.. have gotten a few local reefers to use them as well...

 

[captain7359]

Instead of having to break down the reactor and remove some media once it has removed all of the nitrates could you run an inline container with just sulfur in it between the discharge of the pump and main reactor chamber? Once the nitrate have been nearly eliminated and cannot support all of the sulfur, most of it could be removed by just taking the container of sulfur out. How long does the reactor really take to re-start after you remove media?

 

[tmz]

About a week to 10 days for 0 nitrate effluent, at a slow drip of 2 drops per second . About a month to get 0 nitrate at a faster drip of 9000 ml per hour. This was with 3 litres of sulfur in use and tank water starting at 80ppm or so in a 575 gallon system.

 

[tmz]

This is an update :

Started the nitrate reactor diy version with 3 liters of sulfur( carrib sea LSM) and five or six inches of seachem matrix media (the pumice stone type), on the evening of 1/07. I cycled it by dripping the effluent into a bucket for the first week using system water for input. Dripping into a bucket was to avoid putting effluent ammonia and nitrite into the system during cycling. I did open it once due to a failure of the reticulating pump about a week after starting so full cycling was delayed .

1/08 Reactor : ammonia /135ppm,No2 /0.1(deep purple on API test), NO3 /30ppm. System : NO3 /80ppm.

1/15 Reactor: ammonia /0, NO2/ 0, NO3 /<5ppm.

2/12 Reactor: NO3/ 0 at a flow rate of 9000ml per hour(55 gallons per day). System NO3/ 50ppm.

2/25 Reactor: NO3/ 0 at 9000ml per hour. System less than 5 ppm NO3. Hooray.

I want to once again thank dj the author of this tread for sharing the dyi design and making the application much easier and less expensive than it might have been.

 

[djfrankie]

Sorry guys for the short hiatus...I was wondering tonight if people had lost interest in the design until I looked and found out somehow I had unsubscribed to this thread

Thanks Steve and Dick for the helping everyone here!

If there are any pending questions shoot them my way and I'll be happy to help.

djfrankie

 

[djfrankie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14485938#post14485938 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tmz
This is an update :

Started the nitrate reactor diy version with 3 liters of sulfur( carrib sea LSM) and five or six inches of seachem matrix media (the pumice stone type), on the evening of 1/07. I cycled it by dripping the effluent into a bucket for the first week using system water for input. Dripping into a bucket was to avoid putting effluent ammonia and nitrite into the system during cycling. I did open it once due to a failure of the reticulating pump about a week after starting so full cycling was delayed .

1/08 Reactor : ammonia /135ppm,No2 /0.1(deep purple on API test), NO3 /30ppm. System : NO3 /80ppm.

1/15 Reactor: ammonia /0, NO2/ 0, NO3 /<5ppm.

2/12 Reactor: NO3/ 0 at a flow rate of 9000ml per hour(55 gallons per day). System NO3/ 50ppm.

2/25 Reactor: NO3/ 0 at 9000ml per hour. System less than 5 ppm NO3. Hooray.

I want to once again thank dj the author of this tread for sharing the dyi design and making the application much easier and less expensive than it might have been.

That is great news....you may already have heard this a million times, but keep an eye on Alk levels

djfrankie