Looked back at my log from when I put my unit in. My tank was reading around 40 on Nitrate when I installed it. The unit took about 7 days to hit 20 on the effluent, and another 5 days after that to hit zero. So a total of 12 days to hit zero at 1 drop per second, and my unit at that time had a pretty big sulfur load in it, probably about 4 to 5 inches in the 7" diameter tube it has in it. Then once I increased the drip rate to 120 drop per minute, and it took almost 20 days to hit zero again. But then when I increased to 180 drops per minute, it only took about 7 days to get back down to zero.
One thing to consider, if your unit is outside the sump, and the room is pretty cool, it may be retarding the bacterial growth. I remember one person was having trouble getting this unit to break in, and his was in his basement, so the unit was getting really cool, low 60's. He moved it to be inside the sump, and it was much better. The bacterial growth at a low temp is much slower than at a higher temp. If you wanted, you might even try putting the unit in a water bath, maybe a tub of some sort, and dropping in an extra heater, and bringing the temp up to the low 80's. A few degrees can increase bacterial growth quite a bit, and it might help kick start the bacteria into high gear. Just a thought, but if you've got the extra equipment sitting around, and you find your effluent is pretty cool (take a sample, and check it), you might give it a a try.
