buffalo123
New member
Is air bubbles in the sulphur good or bad
DIY Sulfur Denitrator
- Thread starter JohnL
- Start date
Depends on what's in the bubbles. If it's air which includes oxygen then you don't want it there. It will deplete as the bacteria use the O2. If its hydrogen sulfide then it's toxic. More likely it's harmless nitrogen gas which is left over after the bactertia use the oxygen in the nitrate(NO3) and that's a good thing.
Seems like every time I make an adjustment it crashes. I'm back to 1 drip per 3 seconds. Nitrites are off the scale, but NO3 is about half the tank level. Tank is around 8ppm, effluent is around 4ppm (Salifert). I've never been able to get 1 drip per second on it.
ph 8.2,nitrates 20 ,alk8 ,effluent 0 same reactor as yours LSM and arms on top put a 50/50 mix in reactor. After i posted i read the artical link you put on the post and turned up the effluent rate and the smell went away. This is a cool thread you guys,gals are very helpfull 2 thumbs up to all I am shure I will have more ? THANKS Russ 
saltydog64
New member
Lonnie..........
First thought on your cloudy water......with in the last month or so have you added a carbon source.....like vodka or particularly surgar ?????
Yes, I did use some sugar about a month ago... but my water has been crystal clear.
Tank looks clear from the front, but you can see a little sheen on the top surface of the water.
You really only notice the cloudiness looking through the length of the tank. The effluent looks clear in a jar.
There is a lot of aeration,
1800+gph water flow
55gal refugium
35gal sump
My tank PH is 8.2
Nitrates are about 40
Tank is 80deg
Effluent ph is 7.8
Nitrates about 2.5 & dropping
What are your thoughts on the cloudy water?
Tank looks clear from the front, but you can see a little sheen on the top surface of the water.
You really only notice the cloudiness looking through the length of the tank. The effluent looks clear in a jar.
There is a lot of aeration,
1800+gph water flow
55gal refugium
35gal sump
My tank PH is 8.2
Nitrates are about 40
Tank is 80deg
Effluent ph is 7.8
Nitrates about 2.5 & dropping
What are your thoughts on the cloudy water?
saltydog64
New member
Lonnie.......
I asked about the sugar because way back when I was first cycling my SR I experimented with adding a very small amount of sugar to the input water, to give it a little kick in the butt,so to speak (at that time the whole deal was being run away from the main tank, out of 5 gal bucket, back into the bucket) and when I added the sugar, the water got very cloudy with in hours. Your amount is no where as concentated as mine was BUT small traces of sugar "could" cause a "slight bacteria bloom".....the good news is it will slowly disipate over time.
I cann't hope to chemically explain why running a SR would have this affect in combination with a carbon source only I know what happen to me, at that time I made NO other changes which is no small miracle because I like so many others make many changes at the same time then wonder what the heck???? You know what I mean....It should slowly improve....
Good Luck...........come on spring...
Dick
I asked about the sugar because way back when I was first cycling my SR I experimented with adding a very small amount of sugar to the input water, to give it a little kick in the butt,so to speak (at that time the whole deal was being run away from the main tank, out of 5 gal bucket, back into the bucket) and when I added the sugar, the water got very cloudy with in hours. Your amount is no where as concentated as mine was BUT small traces of sugar "could" cause a "slight bacteria bloom".....the good news is it will slowly disipate over time.
I cann't hope to chemically explain why running a SR would have this affect in combination with a carbon source only I know what happen to me, at that time I made NO other changes which is no small miracle because I like so many others make many changes at the same time then wonder what the heck???? You know what I mean....It should slowly improve....
Good Luck...........come on spring...
Dick
I posted earlier but it didn't go through for some reason.
If the effluent is going into the tank during a cycle or recycle in the denitrator that may be occurring for some reason it could carry in some ammonia and/or nitrite that could fuel a bacterial bloom.
Sugar dosing could certainly cause one but not a month after the dose.
If the effluent is going into the tank during a cycle or recycle in the denitrator that may be occurring for some reason it could carry in some ammonia and/or nitrite that could fuel a bacterial bloom.
Sugar dosing could certainly cause one but not a month after the dose.
All the fish are fine, but I'm not used to seeing a cloudy tank, nor the film on top of the water.
The protein skimmer is producing a lot of foam, so it is doing its job.
No sulfur smell.
Phosphate is at the normal .1 that I never can seem to get rid of because my fish eat like pigs.
I have a slight nitrite reading, but not even to the lowest .05ppm reading, just a slight discolor from zero.
Ammonia is hardly reading anything
I'll see what it looks like in the morning.
The protein skimmer is producing a lot of foam, so it is doing its job.
No sulfur smell.
Phosphate is at the normal .1 that I never can seem to get rid of because my fish eat like pigs.
I have a slight nitrite reading, but not even to the lowest .05ppm reading, just a slight discolor from zero.
Ammonia is hardly reading anything
I'll see what it looks like in the morning.
Last edited:
The_Browns
New member
What sulphur and Aragonite should I buy? Also how long should each be changed?
Last edited:
sunsetSPS
New member
I got cloudy water when I first had my unit in service too. I disconnected and ran with RO water for a few days (circulated with bucket of water and changed the water when I saw it got cloudy) After that the cloudy water completely went away. I should have cleaned the medias before putting them in the unit.
Still having cloudiness issues...
Rechecked everything & all parameters are the same as yesterday.
The ammonia is concerning me some, but honestly i haven't tested it in 4 years. After the tank cycled, I never tested it again. The dip strips show nothing, but my test kit turns slightly lime green... guessing .1 to .125ppm at most. Lowest reading is .25 My effluent & tank show the same reading so I would not necessarily blame the sulfur reactor.
As for recirculating water, I ran it for a week pulling from the tank & discharging to a bucket, so about 35gal was put through it before I returned anything to the tank.
Rechecked everything & all parameters are the same as yesterday.
The ammonia is concerning me some, but honestly i haven't tested it in 4 years. After the tank cycled, I never tested it again. The dip strips show nothing, but my test kit turns slightly lime green... guessing .1 to .125ppm at most. Lowest reading is .25 My effluent & tank show the same reading so I would not necessarily blame the sulfur reactor.
As for recirculating water, I ran it for a week pulling from the tank & discharging to a bucket, so about 35gal was put through it before I returned anything to the tank.
I would blame the reactor. It will produce ammonia when it's not cycled fully. Mine did. I suggest you pull the effluent line out of your sump/tank drip it into a bucket and slow the reactor down to 1 or 2 drops per second until you start to get 0 or near ) ppm nitrate out of the reactor and of course 0 ammonia and 0 nitrate.Then you can put the linme back into your tank/sump and gradually increase the flow, doubling every 2 days or so;testing for 0 nitrate and doubling again and so on.
saltydog64
New member
Lonnie...............
Before I would do anything...........if you haven't already done so is to take a water sample to your LFS or a friend and have your readings confirmed. You say you haven't check for it in the last 4 years....there is a good chance the kit has expired...In a tank of that age "fully cycled" it's hard to believe any ammonia would be detected as it should "oxidize" instantly and not be seen by a test kit...IMO...
Before I would do anything...........if you haven't already done so is to take a water sample to your LFS or a friend and have your readings confirmed. You say you haven't check for it in the last 4 years....there is a good chance the kit has expired...In a tank of that age "fully cycled" it's hard to believe any ammonia would be detected as it should "oxidize" instantly and not be seen by a test kit...IMO...
I took my reactor offline for several months, because there was no nitrates left for it to process and it was depressing the pH a little too much for my liking.
Nitrates held at zero for quite a while, but are now starting to creep up again, despite regular water changes.
Can I just rinse through the reactor with tank water (putting it back online and having the output got into a bucket), and then use it again, or do I have to replace the media in it?
I'm thinking of running about 20G through it and then having the output go into a bucket until nitrates are at 0.
Edited to add: after running about 5G through the reactor, the output water still smells strongly of sulfur.
Nitrates held at zero for quite a while, but are now starting to creep up again, despite regular water changes.
Can I just rinse through the reactor with tank water (putting it back online and having the output got into a bucket), and then use it again, or do I have to replace the media in it?
I'm thinking of running about 20G through it and then having the output go into a bucket until nitrates are at 0.
Edited to add: after running about 5G through the reactor, the output water still smells strongly of sulfur.
saltydog64
New member
sis..........
Long time no hearing from you..............glad it worked !!!! What you're considering is just what I might be doing in a few weeks, as I to reached Zero months ago and the SR has been off line for 3 months, as I just couldn't keep up with constant dropping ALK......
Now the tank Nitrates have got to a range of 3 - 5 ppm and of course the tank has more demanding critters in it, so I want the Nitrates lower. I think what I'm going to do is open it (never did that since shut down) and rinse all the sulfur several times in RO/DI water and restart it......we'll see.
Why not open it, remove all media (sulfur and ARM ) and riinse the heck out of it (and the SR)....... we're "old" hands @ starting one of these so it should be no biggie....
Dick
Long time no hearing from you..............glad it worked !!!! What you're considering is just what I might be doing in a few weeks, as I to reached Zero months ago and the SR has been off line for 3 months, as I just couldn't keep up with constant dropping ALK......
Now the tank Nitrates have got to a range of 3 - 5 ppm and of course the tank has more demanding critters in it, so I want the Nitrates lower. I think what I'm going to do is open it (never did that since shut down) and rinse all the sulfur several times in RO/DI water and restart it......we'll see.
Why not open it, remove all media (sulfur and ARM ) and riinse the heck out of it (and the SR)....... we're "old" hands @ starting one of these so it should be no biggie....
Dick
Similar threads
