DIY Sulfur Denitrator

[Black71gp]

this just will not get working for me everything cool thing i try has no effect on my system.. I had added TONS of sulfur, anything over 1dps coming out is high nitrates.. sometimes higher than the tank.. no nitrites either.. i have tried with the recirc pump on or off.. all that does is change the amount of gas that accumulates at the top of the system.. maybe i need to make it even bigger? i would have to start over due to needing larger acrylic, to make it taller so i can fit more media.. just do not understand why it wont kick into gear....

[knockout]

Ok, three weeks after completing my setup nitrates were down to 10 from 80 "nice", its now week seven and all of a sudden I have a rotten egg smell on the effluent... I removed the unit from the tank this morning, what should I do? clean unit? more or less sulfur?

[reef_only]

Originally posted by Black71gp
this just will not get working for me everything cool thing i try has no effect on my system.. I had added TONS of sulfur, anything over 1dps coming out is high nitrates.. sometimes higher than the tank.. no nitrites either.. i have tried with the recirc pump on or off.. all that does is change the amount of gas that accumulates at the top of the system.. maybe i need to make it even bigger? i would have to start over due to needing larger acrylic, to make it taller so i can fit more media.. just do not understand why it wont kick into gear....

Yours is weir. Is your circ. pump on? I think you need to let it on so that the water has more contact with media. Does it has rotten egg smell? I used 2.5L of sulfur and my tank water has ~30ppm, after 3 days I saw effluent has <1ppm dropped from 50ppm from day 1, and day 4th I start to smell rotten egg and did pump to higher effluent rate. Now it is at 60ml per min with 0ppm effluent. I still smell slightly rotten egg and will pump it to ~90ml/min soon.

What is your tank NO3? I dont think if it matters of small or big reactor, and you have lots of media currently.

[wizsmaster]

Originally posted by Black71gp
this just will not get working for me everything cool thing i try has no effect on my system.. I had added TONS of sulfur, anything over 1dps coming out is high nitrates.. sometimes higher than the tank.. no nitrites either.. i have tried with the recirc pump on or off.. all that does is change the amount of gas that accumulates at the top of the system.. maybe i need to make it even bigger? i would have to start over due to needing larger acrylic, to make it taller so i can fit more media.. just do not understand why it wont kick into gear....

Just weird ... I'm not sure what would cause you such issues.
Do you get rotten egg smell? My guess would be not.

If you're going for larger acrylic, and by the time you get everything .. you may as well look into the Korallin S-4002 ... includes media & all - plug & play. It's the large boy ... mine produced 0 NO3 on the 3rd day ... I also have some NBC #9 from Midwest aquatic, but didn't receive it until the unit had already cycled.

Originally posted by knockout
Ok, three weeks after completing my setup nitrates were down to 10 from 80 "nice", its now week seven and all of a sudden I have a rotten egg smell on the effluent... I removed the unit from the tank this morning, what should I do? clean unit? more or less sulfur?

Provided the media is sized properly for your tank volume, I'd say run more water through the unit. Increase your throughput ...

[Steve 926]

Originally posted by knockout
Ok, three weeks after completing my setup nitrates were down to 10 from 80 "nice", its now week seven and all of a sudden I have a rotten egg smell on the effluent... I removed the unit from the tank this morning, what should I do? clean unit? more or less sulfur?

All you needed to do, is to increase the flow rate.
You may need to start over, if the reactor has been off line for a while.
Rinse the media in ro/di water only & start the drip over. It will cycle a lot faster this time.
I have found that keeping the NO3 level at zero is not the best thing for some of my corals. I do not have any sps, so my corals like it a little dirty, 2 ~ 5 ppm. NO3. they all seem to thrive & my Maxima clam is getting huge !! I have been feeding the display like it was the last supper, & that's probably why it's at 2 ~ 5 ppm.

Steve

[saltydog64]

Originally posted by Black71gp
this just will not get working for me everything cool thing i try has no effect on my system.. I had added TONS of sulfur, anything over 1dps coming out is high nitrates.. sometimes higher than the tank.. no nitrites either.. i have tried with the recirc pump on or off.. all that does is change the amount of gas that accumulates at the top of the system.. maybe i need to make it even bigger? i would have to start over due to needing larger acrylic, to make it taller so i can fit more media.. just do not understand why it wont kick into gear....

Black71gp.............Man I feel your flustration , It sounds to me your really close, I know comes off sounding well, you know, anyhow a couple of ???, What is your current tank Nitrates, and what where they before all this, if diffirent. Secondly what are the Nitrate readings before and after you crankup the FR ???( in actual ppms.....)

The amount of gas with pump on vs pump off really if you think about makes sense, why? pump on more contact time with what bacteria you have so more gas ( the reaction or feeding of bacteria is longer vs short exposure ( no pump circulating)

Say I wonder if an additive like NBC # 9 might not be a bad idea, you know, more bacteria, more reaction,= more flow....= less Nitrates......

Oh ya if you can, report the temperature in the SR (Open VV, the fitting on the top, make sure your getting some water flow out of it first and with the MJ off, don't want to get any more O2 in there than needed stick a thermoter in there.

Is this tank and "old" mature tank and prehaps was not maintained quite up to today's standards ( what ever the heck that means)?

dj has not chimed in lately as I think he has been out of town, and you know I tkink he just might be watching in the background to see how everyone here handles the everyday ins and outs of this thread.

You EVERY problem has a solution, and we just have to keep kicking over enough stones and yep there it is......

Dick

[skippyreef]

Here is how I propose to finish the plumbing. This is all dry fitted right now. The JG valve that is first is to drip the effluent on the horizontal run and the JG valve on teh vertical is the feed. I am going to cut some acrylic early this week and weld it to the base to keep the pump from drifting and also place a piece under the inlet elbow at the bottom to reduce stress from the weight of the water on the body. I want the load to carry to the base and not at the bulkhead up top. This is the time for the critique before I glue this thing together.

[wizsmaster]

why would you put the IN & OUT on the same run?
You'd place the IN on the Suction side of the pump, and the OUT either on the Pressure side of the pump, or in the lid/body. If given the chance, i'd guess both the IN & OUT will be suction, provided there were another out somewhere. Everything on the Suction side of the pump should be like a venturi, and be sucked in.

[wizsmaster]

i guess it will work if you force feed it .. but still i personally wouldn't do it that way.

[skippyreef]

Thanks for the insight. It makes sense that it would be sucking in air this way now that I look at it (another reason I did not glue it). If I out the out put in the lid do I still need to add a degassing valve to it?

[wizsmaster]

I'd recommend it ... I personally never had to degass, not saying I never will .. but never had issues with it locking up, or building large amounts of gas - i do run quiet a bit of water through mine though ... i'd guess that the larger amount of water is able to take much of the gasses with it.

I personally would probably convert the currently flex pipe run to regular rigid PVC - less to have a potential to move around, and looks more uniform.

looks pretty good though ..

[skippyreef]

Thanks for the help. I am going to do the rest of the acrylic work on it this week and hope to be running after vacation in a few weeks.

[FFrankie]

Nice work Frankie. (ps great name )
I have a ton of clear tubing so i think i am going to build one and have it on stand by. right now i am using this though,

[Black71gp]

Originally posted by saltydog64
Black71gp.............Man I feel your flustration , It sounds to me your really close, I know comes off sounding well, you know, anyhow a couple of ???, What is your current tank Nitrates, and what where they before all this, if diffirent. Secondly what are the Nitrate readings before and after you crankup the FR ???( in actual ppms.....)

The amount of gas with pump on vs pump off really if you think about makes sense, why? pump on more contact time with what bacteria you have so more gas ( the reaction or feeding of bacteria is longer vs short exposure ( no pump circulating)

Say I wonder if an additive like NBC # 9 might not be a bad idea, you know, more bacteria, more reaction,= more flow....= less Nitrates......

Oh ya if you can, report the temperature in the SR (Open VV, the fitting on the top, make sure your getting some water flow out of it first and with the MJ off, don't want to get any more O2 in there than needed stick a thermoter in there.

Is this tank and "old" mature tank and prehaps was not maintained quite up to today's standards ( what ever the heck that means)?

dj has not chimed in lately as I think he has been out of town, and you know I tkink he just might be watching in the background to see how everyone here handles the everyday ins and outs of this thread.

You EVERY problem has a solution, and we just have to keep kicking over enough stones and yep there it is......

Dick

NItrates of my tank are around 60-80. they vary...have not changed much at all. I will have to measure inside the reactor temp. I can get 0PPM coming out of the reactor at 1dps.. if i increase it any its super high almost to tank nitrates coming out of the reactor.

Tank is nothing super old.. running in current set up around a year.. also its has been maintained at "todays standards" lol..

The only rotten egg smell i get is if i degas the unit...

I will keep the recirc pump on for a while now and see if the output nitrates drop back down. i backed it down to 1dps again and will check it in a few days and go from there...

[knockout]

thanks guys, I think I will clean and restart the reactor and remove half the sulfur, I may have added too much... will keep you posted...

[saltydog64]

Originally posted by Black71gp
NItrates of my tank are around 60-80. they vary...have not changed much at all. I will have to measure inside the reactor temp. I can get 0PPM coming out of the reactor at 1dps.. if i increase it any its super high almost to tank nitrates coming out of the reactor.

Tank is nothing super old.. running in current set up around a year.. also its has been maintained at "todays standards" lol..

The only rotten egg smell i get is if i degas the unit...

I will keep the recirc pump on for a while now and see if the output nitrates drop back down. i backed it down to 1dps again and will check it in a few days and go from there...

Black71gp........thx for your reply. After going back, I think it was pg 30 of this thread, and seeing your system, first VERY impressive, and also I don't think you need to check temp., I don't think that's an issue.

What do you mean degassing unit ? and you get Hydogen Sulfide @ that time, I guess I'm confussed, as H2S would indicate low flow for the level of Nitrates, which is hard to understand with your tank level @ + 70 ppm............

A couple ?? on your set up, what is that reactor just to the left of the SR ?, how does water flow get to the SR, and now that's hooked to tank (since 04/12/08)what is direction of flow out of SR ?. You might NOT have to start over to a larger unit, why:

It looks like your running CO2, correct ? You might not need ARM @ this time, therefore, if that reactor left of SR is full of ARM, why not just replace it with a full load of seeded sulfur, than flow would be in series with current SR, 2X the exposure to Sulfur.

With your investment in that huge system I would: #1 get better test kit(s) such as LaMotte for NO2 and NO3 ( Now I know that's going kick up a regular s___ storm, just my opinon and #2 I would also consider getting NBC# 9 and start using it............

Just a couple ideas I had........

[Black71gp]

Degasing I mean opening the vent at the top of the first chamber and letting the gas that builds up out. and there is TONS more when i run the recirc pump.. like i have to open the vent at least twice a day as the gas is about an inch or so down from the top. If i turn the pump off. i only have to degas once every two to three days.. and never near as much as the other time.

THe reactor to the left is my CO2 reactor. Water flow goes to the SR from a MJ1200 then out to the tank from there.. flow is out of the top of the second chamber..

Ya i could get rid of the arm in the seconds chamber.. would it be worth filling one chamber with bio matrix and the other with lots of sulfur??

I have used salifert kits and they read pretty close to the cheappy one i use now. thats just for reference to see if its even close to 0 yet.. will see how this works with runing the recirc pump all the time.

[reef_only]

My effluent (@60ml/min) still gives some smell, it's not exactly rotten egg smell but some smell that I don't see in tank water, and it's less than 1ppm (effluent). Does anyone have different smell at output water from the sulfur reactor unit? or I need to pump up my effluent rate?

[wizsmaster]

pump it up a little. Also check in your effluent line to see if you're starting to get some white/yellowish buildup.

[OCEAN SIZE]

Would it make sense to plumb a fuge, a phosban reactor, or both in line after the sulfur denitrator ?

[kcress]

Ok I have my unit up, got a problem though.

I'm using a powerhead to supply the tank water to the column. The column is sourced at the bottom. With both the return and top vent open the column fills up and water shoots out both of them. The column is sitting on the counter next to the tank.

As soon as I turn on the Maxi-Jet 1200 the flow out the two outlets stops instantly and in a few moments the Maxi-Jet starts cavitating.

It seems the circ pump is pressurizing the bottom of the column and reversing the flow from the column back to the tank... Argh!!

Got any suggestions?

[pecan2phat]

I had a similiar problem by trying to tee off of a powerhead that is currently running my GFO & carbon reactors. Flow is good until the recirc pump is turned on.
Not enough pressure so I had to swap out the feed pump to a larger one.

[reef_only]

For my reactor my tank water feeding is at the sucking side of the circ. pump and return(effluent) is on the pumping side of circ. and for me the feeding pump is only needed during start up after that the even I turned off the feeding pump the circ. pump also sucks water from tank mixed it and pump out at the other end. I now T off the feeding line from my fuge pump but with my plumping the feeding pump is mainly needed during startup.

[kcress]

pecan2phat; Yikes running any pump just to feed is nasty but a bigger one. Arrrrrgh!

reef-only; Great idea. I woke up this morning thinking I'll just reverse the feed and outlets and maybe I won't need the dang feed pump at all. Glad to hear of your experience.

[kcress]

Dang it's not working either. I reversed hoses. I charged it up till it was fully purged with water coming out the vent in a solid stream.

The outlet comes from the same chamber the recirc feeds and leads into my tank under the surface. Once it was running I turned off the feed pump and unplugged the feed line from it so it could become the outlet and I could watch the drips. Water was coming out in a weak stream. I throttle it down and it just wanted to ether flow or not but not just drip. Then the circ pump started cavitating.