Sulfur DeNITRIFIER DIY!!!

it has been awhile since i posted. i set up my denitrator with the refillable di units many weeks ago. the unit started working after about a week. as of today my nitrates in my tank are about 0-2 with 0 in my effluent. the one thing that i think i did different from many of you is that i reduced my drip rate to less than 30 drops per minute when the nitrates coming out of the reactor were high. i even shut the unit down for half a day (before decreasing to 30/min) to try to create an anoxic enviroment within the media.(below is my opinion)

i think with these refillable units the amount of sulfur is too small to have a quick drip rate. after my effluent dropped to zero with a drip rate of about 30/min, i slowly increased the rate. anything over 60/min seemed to fast and my effluent nitrates started to climb. i think the differences between these units and the commerical units is the amount of sulfur media. also many of these other diy units use alot more media than i did. those refillable di canisters don't hold much media. perhaps putting two units in sequence might work better in a large system. with drip rate of 60/min my nitrates came down to 0-2 in a few weeks in my main system from 20-30.

marc, out of curiosity what is you drip rate now? i think trying to break these units in at 60/min is too high. the original unit described at the beginning of this thread didn't use refillable di units. the sulfur media was placed in a ro unit and to me it seemed to work more a dsb would but with sulfur. the flow with that unit probably didn't matter a much since the water wasn't being pushed through the media. well i hope this helps in some way since our units are very similar.

greg
 
That's a good theory, and makes quite a bit of sense. The amount of nitrate that can be processed is influenced both by the level of nitrate in the water going into the unit, as well as the amount of bacteria the unit can support. My unit (the smaller MidWest Aquatics unit) probably holds about 3lbs of sulfur media, and the starting drip rate is 1 drop per second (60 per minute), with an eventual target rate of about 3 drops per second (180 per minute). In a smaller unit, you probably will have a target drip rate that is less, since there is less media to support bacteria. And one of the things that was recommended for people who couldn't get their going well was to shut down the input and output, and just let the recirculation pump run for a day to see if that would increase the bacterial growth. It's harder to do on a unit without a circulation pump, you would get dead spots, but for a short time I doubt it would be harmful at all.

There really isn't any downside to breaking the unit in at a lower drip rate and slowly increasing it. If you get a rotten egg smell, that's probably good at that point, it means you need to turn up the drip rate. So it may be worthwhile to turn down the rate to even as low as 15 or 20 per minute and let it run at that rate for a while, if the nitrates get to zero, then slowly increase it and watch the nitrate level. When you get to a point where as you said you can't increase the rate without the nitrate not being fully processed, you've hit your max rate. Of course once your tank gets down to zero or near zero, you can probably increase the rate a bit more then, as you won't have much nitrate to processes, and what I'm finding it is doesn't take much to keep up with my tank on an ongoing basis. I've removed all but about an inch of the sulfur in my unit, and it's still keeping my nitrate down to zero.
 
Anything wrong with blending the sulfur and aragonite media together in the first chamber? And is the third carbon chamber really necessary? I dont think the commercial units incorporate carbon into the system.

I would love if this could be simplified into a simple one-chamber model using the blended sulfur/Ca media.
 
Only problem I would see with the blending is that you will probably want to change the aragonite out more often than the sulfur, as the sulfur can last for a couple years, where the aragonite will break down much sooner. And if the aragonite gets too small and begins to clog up the flow, that wouldn't be too good. You could probably wash it away from the sulfur, but you might lose a bit of the sulfur depending on what type and size it is.
 
lobster theres a media called no-no3 from carib sea thats aragonite and sulfur blended togheter

melev when i cycled my denitrifier i went thru some days of having nitrite like crazy and a lot of nitrate, then they suddenly plumetted, i think the sign of nitrate on the outflow means that its begining to build an anaerobic zone inside. ohh and make sure theres no air bubbles beign pumped into denitrifier because if there is oxygen present it will never cycle

ohh and melev what happened on 10/2005???
 
That's true, on my unit there is an air purge value on the top, and when I was cycling it I often had to "burp" out gas a couple times a day. I was told it was normal, so you may need to check that as well. And Nitrite is definitely a sign that things are heading in the right direction.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11624471#post11624471 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LobsterOfJustice
And is the third carbon chamber really necessary? I dont think the commercial units incorporate carbon into the system..
Click to expand...

The carbon chamber is not totally necessary, I added it with the thinking that it will provide extra insurance against hydrogen sulfide making its way into the tank. You could certainly use the setup without the C, just make sure that the effluent is able to 'de-gas' thoroughly before it gets back into the tank. One option would be running the effluent into the sump with an airstone driving hard right next to it. Its just an extra precaution for the reef, and has nothing to do with the actual nitrate removal.
 
i don't run the 3rd carbon chamber. my effluent drips into the filter sock from my overflows which appears very turbulent. from there is goes through the skimmer then the return. in addition, i wonder if running the effluent through carbon at such a slow rate has much of a benefit (i am sure it is better than nothing, but it probably doesn't use carbon to it's max). it seems that carbon needs a faster flow rate, possible through a reactor.

greg
 
I might try this with a single canister. I can drip the effluent into the skimmer intake. Any reason to use a DI housing rather than a phosban reactor? I'm thinking the reactor might be easier because it 1) comes with a ball valve and 2) eliminates the problem of attaching a maxijet to the input 1/4" line.
 
I was going to borrow a Nitrite kit from a friend, but forgot to take it when I was leaving today. I'll probably have my LFS check that with a water sample tomorrow.

I've still got it to set 1 drip per second. I can slow it down further, I'm sure.

There is no air in the sulfur section, but the ARM and Carbon sections aren't full of water. I don't think that would matter for those. They run around 30% and 20% full respectively, and water flows up through the media since I'm using refillable canisters for those.
 
One week later for me and still no results. I test the water coming out of the nitrate reactor and it has higher nitrates than the water in my tank...
 
I believe its normal for the water exiting the reactor to first increase the nitrates before it eventually drops. You shouldn’t be testing for nitrates until your nitrite readings are zero exiting the reactor.
 
Would it hurt to put in a cup (or less) of live sand with the sulphur beads? Would this help seed the bacteria faster?
 
I didn't get a chance to test the nitrite today as planned, but I decided I needed to pull out the disgusting looking sock I used to keep detritus out of the DIY denitrifier. After cleaning it, I fired up the pump again (MJ 1200) and nothing would come out.

After a little tinkering and testing the tubing at the entry point, I decided that the refillable reservoirs are creating too much back pressure. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I was concerned that the foam block thing at the top of each canister might create too much resistance. After emptying out the carbon, I soon realized there was no way to get that thing out of there cleanly. Instead, I opted to punch out the plastic plug that was in the center of that foam block, so water can flow up and out of the cartridge. I did this with the ARM and the Carbon, and got it running again.

I don't know if this will make any difference at all, but we'll see.
 
Parts

Parts

Well I now have everything I need to start this. I will set it up this weekend more than likely. I am not sure if I am going to put it in my garage or in my utility room (sumps are in my garage) yet. I think I have read earlier that some ones may not be working well due to the cold temperature in the garage. I also am undecided on the media chambers inside of the cansisters. I am leaning toward not using them , as it seems the ones that seem to work the best do not use them. I have attached some pictures to show the Maxi-Jet mod I did, and of the parts I have.

IMG_0952.jpg


IMG_0953.jpg


Set up from the Filter Guys. Great service!!
IMG_0954.jpg


Sulphur media from Aquaticeco.com
IMG_0958.jpg


John Guest needle valve
IMG_0959.jpg


IMG_0957-1.jpg
 
SWEET! Where did you buy your needle valve? I've been looking from time to time, but haven't be successful. Gotta get me a couple.
 
hey melev just a comment, are you using filters just like in the photos above for your denitrifier, if so then the water is not getting thru the media thus not creating an anaerobic zone, you will have to put pieces of pipe in the middle of those filter tops to force the water to go down into the media and then up, just a tought
 
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