Sulfur Denitrifier F/S

[mrwilson]

The larger one made by Midwest Aquatics. The one pictured here: http://www.premiumaquatics.com/aquat...MA-SD721.html. Rated for up to a 500 gallon system. About 9 mos old, includes sulfur and calcium media in the reactor. Can be gravity fed, but I'll throw in a little MJ feed pump. In about six weeks, took my nitrates from >80ppm to <10ppm.

A new one costs $430; buy this one for $300 (OBO).

[sammie]

If it worked so well why are you selling it?

[mrwilson]

After having to buy a new (to me) return pump recently, I could use the cash. I'm planning to set up an RDSB instead for nitrate reduction.

[mrwilson]

Bump for new price: $275 (OBO).

[Treg]

Is the media still good? Do you know how long it lasts?
Its a little spendy for new media...

[mrwilson]

The media has ten months of use on it, and Midwest Aquatic says that their media (which is what this is) should last three years.

By the way, Treg, I really admired your reef with the large angels, etc. - you had a very cool build thread. Flat back hex, wasn't it? Still up and running?

[Treg]

Thanks! Yes, it is still setup.

I'm borderline nitrate issuse with it right now, in the 35-40ppm range... I sold my skimmer a few weeks ago and still waiting on a new one. Plus i took my basement sump offline so lost my remote dsb.


Still trying to decide what I want to do, I actually just started playing with Vodka. I Dont know much about the denitrifiers but the midwest unit sounds preety easy, no feeding the media? Plus it helps dose calcium?

[mrwilson]

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.

[Treg]

Thanks for the invite but im not really FTS worthy right now.

Well I'm far from a Vodka expert but yes, good skimming is needed. I was loaned an ASM G4+ while I wait on the new skimmer and tho I wouldnt exactly consider this to be a great skimmer, I'm still working my way up on the vodka dose too... So hopefully things balance out to good timing. Really hoped to have the new skimmer this week, not sure yet.


Great explaination on the denitrifier. I know very little about them so that just tought me a lot.
I've got some reading to do.

[mrwilson]

Still available.

[Cove Beach]

PM sent

[mrwilson]

Still available, at a new price: $250.

[mrwilson]

Bump.