Sulphur denitrator

[boxfishpooalot]

Hi Randy,

Whats the chemistry behind sulphur beads. The yellow kind that sit in my sulphur reactor. I dont want to poisen my fish some how.

I can smell sulphur coming out of the exit line of the reactor. Not very strong just faint. Is this a problem? Does it enter the aquarium permanently? Will it raise sulphur in the water and is that a problem?

Thanks Box :)

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I mention the chemistry briefly in this article:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

The smell may be a sign of hydrogen sulfide, but if it is a sulfur (and not hydrogen sulfide) smell, it may be normal. I've not use done to know. If the smell the media, is the smell the same?

[boxfishpooalot]

Yea the media smells the same as the exit water. I lost 1 fish due to fin rot(flame angel) only thing different is this reactor.

Does it add sulphur to the water? Is that bad?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It may add sulfur to the water. I'm not really sure what effect that has.

[boxfishpooalot]

any idea what the medias chemical composition is likely to be?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It is my understanding is that it is essentially just sulfur, with, of course, some unkno.wn level of impurities.

[boxfishpooalot]

ok im having a hard time determining if its safe or not. So im asking would you use it or fear sulphur poisening? :)

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don't have much to go on except that there is a reasonably large number of aquarists who use it without apparent poisoning problems.

[boxfishpooalot]

The reactors exit got plugged up and now the water inside the reactor is yellow. Im worried this may kill my fish. I shut it off untill I get some advice from you.

Why did it turn yellow? Looks like dissolved sulphur in the water. This things starting to scare me! Not to mention the fact that I dont want my water yellow.

What would you do Randy?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Is it suspended in the water or just on surfaces? It could be sulfur, yes.

[boxfishpooalot]

Thats what I dont know. The water is yellow still after being off for a day. So it must be dissolved. I cant say for sure if its suspended or dissolved. Is that what you asked? Want a picture?

I dont see any yellow attached to the coral skelotons or walls of the tube. Just yellow in the water and the sulphur media looks black sort of. Accompainied by rotten egg odor when I opened the exit drip. :)

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'd run the reactor into a waste bucket until it came out clear and no longer smelled.

[boxfishpooalot]

Actually now that I look at the water its almost back to normal. That could be just settled out sulphur though. Let me turn it back on for a minute to circulate and see if the water is yellow again....

ok done. Does not look as yellow as it did yesterday, just a slight hue but not bright yellow. Maybee the bacteria ate the sulphur in the water? There is a large "air cylinder" at the top of the reactor(wich is normal). So it was working over night producing H2S :lol:

I can always turn it into a kalkwasser reactor...

Maybee I just over reacted about it?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How is the tank nitrate level?

[boxfishpooalot]

Actually funny you ask because I checked it last night. It seems to have gone down a lot. It looks like 40-60ppm of the fast test kit. Wich a while ago looked maxed out on the range at about 95ppm... So its making progress. Time for a nitrate monitor....