Sulfur DeNitrators

[Sullyman]

Sps won't like any nitrates, but if you're not keeping sps, then a remote dsb might work fine for you.
I have been running a reactor a couple of months now, had to pull the macro out of my fudge over the weekend, it was withering away. Today I pruned the Halimeda out of my tank, it was browning out, not much left for it to live on.
It's a lot of money but it really works well.

 

[Pickupman66]

Reefwreak, FYI, I made my own Coil denitrator. Materials can be aquired for about 20-30 bucks. works like a charm and keeps my nitrates at zero.

 

[Jayson]

I built some coils over the years, I can tell you they do not work anywhere near as well as the sulphur denitrators that I built. The sulphur units are way better.

 

[Pickupman66]

For $450 they had better be..... I just offered a cheaper suggestion. I have a failry good bioload for a 75, and my nitrates are zero. I have a 65 foot coil that runs at about 4-6 drops per second. when I first set it up my nitrates were well over 50 ppm. after the unit had cycled, they slowly dropped over the next month till they are now undetectable on my tests.

 

[Psionicdragon]

Skydancer, is your tank at 0 nitrate now? and how long has it been at zero?

 

[Greg manton]

why does this have to have flow if you ran a 10 foot syphon then stoped the flow would this not get rid of nitrates. ammonia and nitrite are easily taken care of so why do we need flow. basicaly lack of flow should equal 0, 02 or reltivly close. the reast of our tank looks after nitrite and ammonia. if this is flawed let me know but i have had this set up two and a half years and thought it was working, well 0 nitrates forever. ?

 

[Kirk_M]

So, what exactly is the sulfur for? These reactors look just like Calcium reactors, which have slow flow as well. Would it stand to reason that the same bacteria accumulate in a calcium reactor as well, or can they not survive at the lowered pH in the calcium reactor? If they do survive, and are receiving slow flow, virtually anaerobic conditions should exist in a calcium reactor too, and nitrate breakdown should occur as well, correct? Or, is the sulfur a metabolite that is needed by nitrifying bacteria to break the nitrate down into nitrogen gas?

 

[skydancer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8668558#post8668558 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Psionicdragon
Skydancer, is your tank at 0 nitrate now? and how long has it been at zero?

I have not achieved zero nitrates YET, but that's not because of the Sulfur Denitrifier's fault. I'm currently running at 5ppm but remember that I started at 100+.
So I'm able to maintain 5 ppm for a few months now, but there is more to the story. Here si an overview...

The XL unit that I have is capable of taking care of a determined quantity of nitrates.
A skimmer is designed to eliminate the majority BEFORE the dead proteins become nitrates.

So the reason I can not get it to zero (although the Sulfur Denintrifier is putting out zero at 6-10 drops per second) is because I have a very under sized skimmer that can not keep up with my 300 gal reef and a lot of large fish.

So I just invested in a new Deltec AP702 skimmer. Once it is installed I will be able to tell you (I hope) that the properly sized skimmer and the XL Sulfur Denitrifier have brought my nitrates to zero. Right now I 'm forced to change about 50 gal of water per week to keep the water quality at 5ppm.

Stay tuned... and I 'll report back as soon as my new skimmer is up and running. It will take 3-4 weeks to set it up because I had to order a bigger sump for it.

 

[skydancer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8674661#post8674661 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kirk_M
So, what exactly is the sulfur for? These reactors look just like Calcium reactors, which have slow flow as well. Would it stand to reason that the same bacteria accumulate in a calcium reactor as well, or can they not survive at the lowered pH in the calcium reactor? If they do survive, and are receiving slow flow, virtually anaerobic conditions should exist in a calcium reactor too, and nitrate breakdown should occur as well, correct? Or, is the sulfur a metabolite that is needed by nitrifying bacteria to break the nitrate down into nitrogen gas?

The sulfur is the food for the bacteria...that metabolize the nitrates to nitrogen.

 

[hdtvguy]

I bought one of the SWC units. Running it on my 300G tank with heavy bioload the thing rocks! It brought down my Nitrate to 5 in weeks. I was running 100+. no more major water changes.

 

[dfleary]

Skydancer,

What is a "pinch valve"? What does it look like?

Also, how noisy is the aqualifter pump?

 

[dfleary]

I just researched pinch valves, and I want to make sure I understand, because I'm planning on buying a denitrifier from Midwest . . . . the pinch valve that comes with the unit can permanently deform the tubing, so you can't increase the drip rate when it comes time to do so. So you replaced the drip valve with a "inline mini/micro plastic valve," which allows you to adjust the drip.

. . . So is the inline mini/micro plastic valve you mentioned the thing that's used for mini air tubing (barb-to-barb valve for mini air tubing)?

 

[jnb]

my midwest

my midwest

I shut down mine denit. yesterday - I am leaving for a few days and have to constantly adjust drip, hate deformed tubing set up and something keeps clogging up. tired of waiting for the correct sulfur after having the unit with incorrect sulfur for months and months

i found this when i opened it up, 2 months ago I had a similar issue with clogging

 

[dfleary]

Nick,

What brand Denitrator do you have?

 

[jnb]

midwest but not so sure any of them are perfect - wish the tubing was larger and somehow got small at the end or something - whatever it takes to have more reliable drip

whatever that clog is, it was some kind of growth with more body then just slime - it may have been some cave dwelling slimesponge that likes altered ph, sulfur foe dinner, etc

I think they issue would be solved with some kind of foam filter or something on the pump intake - whatever it was cloged the tubes of the pump itself - sort of gross too

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8776375#post8776375 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dfleary
Nick,

What brand Denitrator do you have?

 

[dfleary]

Yeah, not too pleasant, I agree.

You have the sulfur denitrator, or the coil one?

 

[jnb]

sulfur

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8776486#post8776486 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dfleary
Yeah, not too pleasant, I agree.

You have the sulfur denitrator, or the coil one?

 

[skydancer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8776463#post8776463 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnb
midwest but not so sure any of them are perfect - wish the tubing was larger and somehow got small at the end or something - whatever it takes to have more reliable drip

whatever that clog is, it was some kind of growth with more body then just slime - it may have been some cave dwelling slimesponge that likes altered ph, sulfur foe dinner, etc

I think they issue would be solved with some kind of foam filter or something on the pump intake - whatever it was cloged the tubes of the pump itself - sort of gross too

Nick,
I had many problems myself for about 3-4 months constantly having to adjust the drip. At the end I figured out what my problem was...
I measured the effluent output at some point and it was hi (not zero). That prompted me to open the unit and figure out what was wrong. Well while cleaning it I discovered that the ceramic impeller shaft was broken so the unit was not circulating the water properly. Then I emptied the unit, I washed the media down, I washed all the tubes and started from scratch. I replaced the impeller and cleaned the pump. In about 2 days the effluent was measuring zero again. Ever since the drip is not clogging and the unit is running good.
Based on my experience, like any type of reactor, the instruction manual should recommend to measure the effluent "regularly" and when it starts going up, the user should assume that there is a problem, so they should disassemble the unit, wash it down, inspect it, etc.

By the way, when I put it back together, I mixed some ARM media rocks in the sulfur, to give it a little area for bacteria to grow better, as the sulfur would pack tightly before.

Take a look at the pictures...

 

[jnb]

noted, my impeller is ok however. Afer the last time, adjusting the drip was not a day to day thing (until recently then I took it aprt last night to find those growths) but leaving the tank for a week I don't want the sitter to have to worry about this kind of thing

are you using the new sulfur, for all I know the old sulfur clumps more making the possibility of this growth easier

Id be more inclined to use it except ny nitrites were not measurable in the first - just thought I wanted to make my tank more bulletproof nitirite-wise - I/ve not given up - just will play with later after the long, long awiated sulfur which midwest promised me makes its way to my doorstep - now they have not returned my emails

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8776725#post8776725 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by skydancer
Nick,
I had many problems myself for about 3-4 months constantly having to adjust the drip. At the end I figured out what my problem was...
I measured the effluent output at some point and it was hi (not zero). That prompted me to open the unit and figure out what was wrong. Well while cleaning it I discovered that the ceramic impeller shaft was broken so the unit was not circulating the water properly. Then I emptied the unit, I washed the media down, I washed all the tubes and started from scratch. I replaced the impeller and cleaned the pump. In about 2 days the effluent was measuring zero again. Ever since the drip is not clogging and the unit is running good.
Based on my experience, like any type of reactor, the instruction manual should recommend to measure the effluent "regularly" and when it starts going up, the user should assume that there is a problem, so they should disassemble the unit, wash it down, inspect it, etc.

By the way, when I put it back together, I mixed some ARM media rocks in the sulfur, to give it a little area for bacteria to grow better, as the sulfur would pack tightly before.

Take a look at the pictures...

 

[skydancer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8758921#post8758921 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dfleary
I just researched pinch valves, and I want to make sure I understand, because I'm planning on buying a denitrifier from Midwest . . . . the pinch valve that comes with the unit can permanently deform the tubing, so you can't increase the drip rate when it comes time to do so. So you replaced the drip valve with a "inline mini/micro plastic valve," which allows you to adjust the drip.

. . . So is the inline mini/micro plastic valve you mentioned the thing that's used for mini air tubing (barb-to-barb valve for mini air tubing)?

Yes, you can go with the inline valve or you can still use the pinch valve. If you decide to stick with the pinch valve, I would install it close to the output, and when you want to adjust it, and if the tubing is too deformed you should cut about 1 inch of it and slide the pinch valve down a bit. It works good either way. Keep in mind (read my post above) that once I figured out what my problem was, and emptied the unit, cleaned it, etc (started from scratch) I do not have to adjust the drip rate but once in a long while. (2-3 weeks or more)
I hope this helps.