sulphur based denitrators

[dadonoflaw]

i am getting a denitrator so i want to know what people's experiences have been. about how long does it take to start working and what is a good media to use? also the deltec model says to dose sugar water or vodka. which works better? since this isnt virginia im sure sugar will be cheaper so im hoping they both work

[Reef Sponger]

I'm getting a H&S 110SR, here's some info:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=906253

I like the idea of no feeding and once cylced, amost maintenance free for 1.5 years. Media needs to be changed around 1.5 to 2 years. ARM media topped off when needed, heard it wasn't even once per quarter. Any piece of equipment that is almost maintenance free is my kind of quipment.

[ndas2976]

Check out midwestaquatic.com. Their sulphur denitrator's are very similar to korallin. Rick, the owner provides excellent customer sevice. I have the XL unit, I had alot of problems at first with the unit cycling. But I've found the key with the unit is your tank nitrates can't be higher than 50ppm. The denitrator is working very well now.

The unit is very low maintenced, the only thing is when you get that rotten egg smell you have to increase the drip to get rid of it. Thats because the unit is starting to produce H2S. If the smell comes back then you have to break the unit down rinse out the foam sponges and the sulphur with tap water to get rid of all the built up bacteria in the unit. Then but the sulphur back into the unit. Rick suggested that this be done every 4-6 months (about 1 hour to give the unit and pump a good cleaning, but worth it for zero nitrates). The unit will have to go through another recycling, but does rather quickly because there is still bacteria left on the sulphur.

Hope this helps

[dadonoflaw]

i know that the ph of the water gets dropped when using these units and that running it through calcium medium brings it up but what do people observe the ph as when it comes out of the reactor?

[klam114]

I've read some clogging with the MW units and they had to replace with the sulfur media from H&S.

Yes, the pH does drop, but like you mentioned, it does come back up as it passes through ARM and releases calcium into the return water as well.

[dadonoflaw]

what media do you guys recommend for a reactor? are particle sizes important

[mavgi]

if you buy from those company the will give you in the package deal the media to and the media kept for 1 year.

[Reef Sponger]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10173023#post10173023 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dadonoflaw
what media do you guys recommend for a reactor? are particle sizes important This media is not known to clog. I heard the same that when the MW units clogged, they purchased the H&S media to replace their customers media. The only thing about the H&S media, it's not cycled or bacteria introduced yet, so will take a little longer to get your unit started, usually 4-6 weeks based on what I've read.
http://www.finsreef.com/home.php?cat=258

[ndas2976]

Midwest used to use the flake sulphur, but now the company swithced over to the pearl beads sulphur. I know people were having a clogging issue with the flake, but now with the beads there hasn't been an issue.

To address the Ph issue. My tank's ph is at 8.1 - 8.2, the ph coming out of the effluent is 7.55 and that is passing through the crushed coral. Midwest at first used calcium in the unit as the buffer, but i believe that attributed to the clogging problem also. That's why they switched over to the crushed coral.

[dadonoflaw]

yea i will have to add a kalk reactor to bring up my ph which is already between 8.1 and 7.9. a little lower than i would like

[mavgi]

better to add calc reactor and you can make DIY denitrator like that you will save money and have both .

[dadonoflaw]

yes but how will i deal with the lower ph?

[mavgi]

if your ph it's low already then buy first the kalk reactor you right at this point it will be more important to keep the ph level .

[dadonoflaw]

yea my guy recommended the same thing. dont want to bring the ph up too fast i imagine