Sulfur DeNITRIFIER DIY!!!

[melev]

You misread my post. The first picture are my nitrites, not nitrates. I was asked to test them, and they are 0.

The nitrates are from my tank as well as the denitrifier. They are one and the same, as mine has not kicked in yet. I got quite a few PMs from people asking me for more details and I recommended they hold off on doing anything until I could see if it worked for me. The last thing I wanted was for someone (or more) to copy it if it doesn't work, because then many of us end up wasting money as a group.

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11710714#post11710714 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sanababit
melev run the water through media, do a little test, if you have a phosban reactor on hand put some sulphur on bottom and arm media on top and hook it up and test it, i think the reactor will cycle faster that your setup will, i am just trying to help, i went thru same problem, i am on my 3 denitrifier attempt, first was 4 inch pvc with bio balls inside, cycled for 3 months and nothing, next one was a DSB, this was taking a looong time to seed and work, my third after researching and reading was a sulphur based one which cycled in a week and has been working since, please dont take my advice like i am insisting on do in it my way, i am just trying to help

sana

Thanks for the input. I'm going to hold out for some results from the current set up for now because I'd really like to see if it can work before I try a different method. I may change how the fluid flows through the canisters as you suggested earlier.

Since my tank's nitrates aren't nearly as bad as some, I'm not in a huge hurry to get a solution but if I can make this work it would be very interesting and could help others do the same.

Please don't take my resistance to change as an indication of stubbornness. I just don't rush into anything and like to give it time or think it through.

 

[sanababit]

melev, cool, btw i forgot to say that the water passing thru your filter right now is passive filtration because water is just touching the top of media, the system needs active filtration which is water passing thru the media. this i know because i have been in the water bussines for 16 years (reverse and waste water management), lol, sorry i just cant stop talking

sana

 

[melev]

Sana, it is passing through the ARM and the carbon. Just not the sulfur.

 

[sanababit]

melev, ohh ok, i tought it wasn't passing thru all three medias, sorry

 

[IBASSFSH]

Melev, other than the refillable cartridges how can you get the water to flow through the bottom up on an RO type unit as Sanababit recommends? I have not studied the under side of the cannister mounts on the RO unit to see how it works honestly.
Do you have any you could take a picture of without the screw on cannisters in place to see how the water paths through it.

Sorry I did misread your post earlier, my wife pointed that out to me while going over this thread.

 

[mhaith]

IBASS that is funny. I tend to do the same thing as Melev's fuge lights are one of the best things I have ever done to my tank! It seems I am an amazing Chaeto grower (but seem to be struggling with everything else)! But I got to thinking about the length of the tube and air reduction and have tried to come up with an answer as to why. So Melev, do you have the answer? Why is an airtight longer tube better than an airtight shorter tube at reducing air prior to hitting the canisters?

 

[IBASSFSH]

Longer hose

Longer hose

Mhaith here is part of the conversation about the longer hose. Similar to a coil denitrater I guess.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11433850#post11433850 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dkuster
Ya know, another idea might be to add 25 or 50 feet of 1/4" semi-rigid tubing (cheap and available at lowe's) between the powerhead and the sulfur canister.

Essentially you'd be putting a 'pseudo-coil-denitrator' before the sulfur denitrator. But instead of removing nitrates, in this case the purpose would be to try and make sure the water is oxygen deprived before it enters the sulfur canister.

I think I'll try this, and I'll also keep the sulfur in the DI canister. That way the oxygen deprived water would be forced through the sulfur chamber and the entire column of sulfur would be populated with nitrate-eating anaerobic bacteria.

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11711296#post11711296 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by IBASSFSH
Melev, other than the refillable cartridges how can you get the water to flow through the bottom up on an RO type unit as Sanababit recommends? I have not studied the under side of the cannister mounts on the RO unit to see how it works honestly.
Do you have any you could take a picture of without the screw on cannisters in place to see how the water paths through it.

Without the cartridges inside the housings, the water will flow into the canister and back out, always over the top of the media. By putting the media in cartridges, water must flow either:

1) down the side of the canister and up through the cartridge, then out to the next housing/out of the unit

or:

2) down through the media, then up the side of the cartridge and out of the housing to the next housing/out of the unit.

I don't have a picture of an empty cartridge, but here's one that is full of DI resin.

The water flows down around that cartridge, then up through the core of this cartridge via a bunch of small holes in the white base, then out the round hole at the top...

Red arrow is basically where the water would go down

As the water collects, it works its way up through the resin (see how it is black at the bottom, but gray above it?)

Now you can see all the resin is black. Even though the housing isn't full, the water has clearly flowed all the way up to exit via the cap.

Hopefully these pictures help explain it better. Same principle in the denitrifier.

 

[IBASSFSH]

Thanks Melev. Good pics and explanation. I guess going back to Sanababit's comment about using a pipe to get water to flow down then up is what I was not understanding. I know you don't use a cannister like that on the sulphur media, but do you think that if you did that air could still get in due to the chamber not being full of water as pictured in the last picture?

 

[sanababit]

hey ibass, let me jump in on your comment, on the cap of filter canister, looking inside it has a round hole, you can probaly fit a 3/4" or 1/2" pvc pipe in there, just jamm it inside, if it doesnt fit try reducing the pipe diameter until it fits, make the pipe long enough but leave about a 1/4" gap from the bottom (to let water pass), if you want i will look for some pics to better explain it, do it to all filter housings--- sulphur, arm media, carbon

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11712220#post11712220 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by IBASSFSH
Thanks Melev. Good pics and explanation. I guess going back to Sanababit's comment about using a pipe to get water to flow down then up is what I was not understanding. I know you don't use a cannister like that on the sulphur media, but do you think that if you did that air could still get in due to the chamber not being full of water as pictured in the last picture?

No, I think not. Over time the canister will become more and more full with water, but the air doesn't really go through the media like you might surmise. Instead the water basically siphons through the media.

 

[IBASSFSH]

Test results

Test results

Here are some pics of my nitrate test results today.

Before:

After nitrate reactor on for 4 days:

Looks like it is a little more on the yellow side now. What do you think?

 

[IBASSFSH]

I forgot to add that this is the water dripping out of the reactor not a sample from the tank water as in the before shot.

 

[melev]

Looks like it is working better than mine. :lol:

 

[IBASSFSH]

I really have to get this white balance thing down with my camera. Its weird that yours has not started yet Melev. We have pretty much the same set up.
Its hard to tell color wise if it is actually working or not. I hope I'm not just being optimistic about it, and it is actually starting to work.

 

[sanababit]

hello ibass, saw your post and it looks like its working, cool, couple of questions, did you test for nitrite coming out of denitrifier??, did you test nitrate coming from tank??

ohh and welcome to the low nitrate side of the hobby, lol

 

[IBASSFSH]

I have not yet tested for nitrite out of the reactor. I will try and do it tomorrow. I will test the Nitrates in the tank and record that as well. I don't imagine the nitrates in the tank would be down all that much in four days. Especially with approx. 350 gallons of water.
I am still keeping my fingers crossed on this project!!

 

[sanababit]

let us know how test come out, good luck

 

[IBASSFSH]

More Test results

More Test results

Here are some more shots of the tests I ran today.

Nitrite test out of reactor, and Nitrate tank water out of the sump not the reactor:

I am not using the Salifert test since these seem to show the color better. They are expecially easier to photograph for me!!