Jb2344
New Member
I posted this as a reply to a sulfur reactor discussion on another thread and decided to make it its own thread.
I was out of the hobby for about 5 years until this year. Took down my 5-year-old reef and sold everything when we moved and had ambitions of buying a new tank at the new place and starting over. Well, my house flooded during Hurricane Harvey 1 month after we moved in. The house remodel took priority so here I am. I'm actually kind of glad I waited because it seems like the hobby has really come a long way in those 5 years as far as advancements (and live rock prices. Good grief).
That being said during my research to get back in the hobby I was reading about new (to reefers) ways to keep nitrates down. I was happy to try the new things such as zeolite, fleece rollers, and then sulfur denitrification really caught my eye because the field I work in deals with a lot of chemistry surrounding sulfur.
I set up my Red Sea 350 G2 (90-gallon total volume) about 6 months ago with live rock and completed the normal cycle and then slowly bio loaded the tank with fish and corals. I started with a skimmer, fleece roller, and zeolite to see how that did for my nitrates. My numbers would get up to around 20 ppm before water changes and I really wanted to get closer to 2 so I started researching more about the sulfur reactors you could purchase. Luckily, I could find one to buy because the prices I saw were ridiculous. Also, the more I looked at the design I thought they were over engineered with the recirc pumps on them.
I decided to build one out of a standard carbon or GFO reactor changer and use a slow total flow through the chamber to promote near zero O2 concentration.
Fast forward to today:
-I've completely removed my skimmer from the sump and now use that area to grow frags. I initially turned it way down as nitrates closed in on zero and eventually turned it off. A few weeks of it off it started to grow things in it so I removed it. My reef mat does a great job removing waste but I'm looking for something smaller than a traditional skimmer to help promote gas exchange that typically occurs in a skimmer.
-I have a full stream of effluent flow from the sulfur denitrifier with 0.0 PPM as tested on Hannah low range meter
-Currently maintaining 2.0 ppm in main tank (1.7 this morning)
-I adjust the flow of effluent to maintain at least 2.0.
-This thing likes a stable flow. Adjustments will cause nitrate breakthrough for a day and then fall back to zero.
-I didn't fully consider phosphates when I turned the skimmer off because I was so fixated on the nitrates. My Phosphates went to 1.0. I added a GFO reactor, and this quickly solved that issue.
Yes, I've turned the reactor off for a few days to prove that it was the item that was removing the nitrates and not my zeolite filter. I know zeolite is supposed to target more of the ammonia, but I wanted to test anyway. Sure enough, my nitrates went to 10.8 in 3 days. Turned the reactor back on and in a few days, it was back to the 2.0 range.
OK so here are the 4 things I bought for the project below. Bulk reef supply for 3 items and eBay for the other:
-I used the 1/4 adapters and the slid in perfectly to the inlet and outlets of the reactor and I sealed the connection with epoxy.
-I used 1/4 tubing to make connections to reactor and pump.
-I used 1 liter of sulfur in the reactor. I read somewhere and I can't find the source that a good rule of thumb is 1 liter per 100 gallons of system water volume.
-I started the pump and let it run wide open for 3 days
-After the 3 days i tested the effluent and tank water and they matched at 15 ppm
-I turned it down to 1 drip per second and tested in 3 days. 6 ppm reactor 13ppm tank
-I was happy with this and let it ride for like a week and tested again and it was at 3-8
- Week or so later it was at 0-5
-Bumped up flow rate out of reactor and turned off skimmer.
- Few days later I test and I'm at 0-0. I was happy as hell because I thought this was impossible and then started reading about a zero-nutrient tank (never knew there was such a thing from previous experience) is not good for corals.
Anyways... back to today. Mine has been running for about 3 months, no skimmer, actually dosed nitrates for a bit to get to 2.0ppm and have fine-tuned everything with sulfur reactor flow rate to hold around 2.0. I hope this helps someone and I really hope it works well for anyone that might try it.
Below is a video of my current effluent flow. You'll notice the cheap air regulator that I use to adjust the flow on the outlet. It works very well.
I was out of the hobby for about 5 years until this year. Took down my 5-year-old reef and sold everything when we moved and had ambitions of buying a new tank at the new place and starting over. Well, my house flooded during Hurricane Harvey 1 month after we moved in. The house remodel took priority so here I am. I'm actually kind of glad I waited because it seems like the hobby has really come a long way in those 5 years as far as advancements (and live rock prices. Good grief).
That being said during my research to get back in the hobby I was reading about new (to reefers) ways to keep nitrates down. I was happy to try the new things such as zeolite, fleece rollers, and then sulfur denitrification really caught my eye because the field I work in deals with a lot of chemistry surrounding sulfur.
I set up my Red Sea 350 G2 (90-gallon total volume) about 6 months ago with live rock and completed the normal cycle and then slowly bio loaded the tank with fish and corals. I started with a skimmer, fleece roller, and zeolite to see how that did for my nitrates. My numbers would get up to around 20 ppm before water changes and I really wanted to get closer to 2 so I started researching more about the sulfur reactors you could purchase. Luckily, I could find one to buy because the prices I saw were ridiculous. Also, the more I looked at the design I thought they were over engineered with the recirc pumps on them.
I decided to build one out of a standard carbon or GFO reactor changer and use a slow total flow through the chamber to promote near zero O2 concentration.
Fast forward to today:
-I've completely removed my skimmer from the sump and now use that area to grow frags. I initially turned it way down as nitrates closed in on zero and eventually turned it off. A few weeks of it off it started to grow things in it so I removed it. My reef mat does a great job removing waste but I'm looking for something smaller than a traditional skimmer to help promote gas exchange that typically occurs in a skimmer.
-I have a full stream of effluent flow from the sulfur denitrifier with 0.0 PPM as tested on Hannah low range meter
-Currently maintaining 2.0 ppm in main tank (1.7 this morning)
-I adjust the flow of effluent to maintain at least 2.0.
-This thing likes a stable flow. Adjustments will cause nitrate breakthrough for a day and then fall back to zero.
-I didn't fully consider phosphates when I turned the skimmer off because I was so fixated on the nitrates. My Phosphates went to 1.0. I added a GFO reactor, and this quickly solved that issue.
Yes, I've turned the reactor off for a few days to prove that it was the item that was removing the nitrates and not my zeolite filter. I know zeolite is supposed to target more of the ammonia, but I wanted to test anyway. Sure enough, my nitrates went to 10.8 in 3 days. Turned the reactor back on and in a few days, it was back to the 2.0 range.
OK so here are the 4 things I bought for the project below. Bulk reef supply for 3 items and eBay for the other:
-I used the 1/4 adapters and the slid in perfectly to the inlet and outlets of the reactor and I sealed the connection with epoxy.
-I used 1/4 tubing to make connections to reactor and pump.
-I used 1 liter of sulfur in the reactor. I read somewhere and I can't find the source that a good rule of thumb is 1 liter per 100 gallons of system water volume.
-I started the pump and let it run wide open for 3 days
-After the 3 days i tested the effluent and tank water and they matched at 15 ppm
-I turned it down to 1 drip per second and tested in 3 days. 6 ppm reactor 13ppm tank
-I was happy with this and let it ride for like a week and tested again and it was at 3-8
- Week or so later it was at 0-5
-Bumped up flow rate out of reactor and turned off skimmer.
- Few days later I test and I'm at 0-0. I was happy as hell because I thought this was impossible and then started reading about a zero-nutrient tank (never knew there was such a thing from previous experience) is not good for corals.
Anyways... back to today. Mine has been running for about 3 months, no skimmer, actually dosed nitrates for a bit to get to 2.0ppm and have fine-tuned everything with sulfur reactor flow rate to hold around 2.0. I hope this helps someone and I really hope it works well for anyone that might try it.
Below is a video of my current effluent flow. You'll notice the cheap air regulator that I use to adjust the flow on the outlet. It works very well.
