Let's see a full tank shot!
The only real maintenance with the Midwest (or with the Korallin, as far as I know, which is the other brand with a pretty popular sulfur denitrifier) is dialing in the drip rate. Once that's dialed in and equilibrium has been reached with the nitrates, it should be set it and forget it. In my case, after nitrates were fully reduced, I've had to keep the drip rate at a steady stream (not a drip) in order to avoid the sulfur smell. (Generally speaking, if you smell sulfur, you either increase the drip rate or remove some media; if nitrates are not lowering, you do the opposite and slow down the drip rate.) If I were to keep this reactor, I would really need to take out some of the sulfur media for it to work optimally with my size system. My advice to whomever buys this from me will be to just do a freshwater rinse of the media to start completely fresh.
Another thing, fyi, is that the output of sulfur denitrifiers is nitrate-free, but also basically oxygen-free water, so it's important to put the output in an area of the sump or display that's going to be aerated. I put mine in an area of my sump near the intake for the skimmer, and that seems to work fine.
It does help dose calcium also, which is especially helpful for me since I don't have a calcium reactor, and is something I'll miss about it.
Don't you have to skim aggressively to get good nitrate reduction via vodka? My skimmer is ok, but not great, and that's why I personally haven't tried dosing vodka. But I have incomplete knowledge about vodka dosing, at best.
