Do I need to recirculate a sulfur denitrator?

[jasonrusso]

I recently set up a large sulfur denitrator on my big fowler tank. It's designed to be a nitrate reactor so it is set up to recirculate.

I have some sulfur and ARM left over, a spare empty Phosban 150 reactor, and a MJ400 so I was going to set one up on my 34 gallon reef tank. The question is: do I NEED to have the water recirculate? I have seen several pictures of DIY reactors, and a lot of them are repurposed BS reactors, phosban reactors, soda bottles, and they don't recirculate.

I guess I can set up a pump to recirculate it, but I don't have much room in the cabinet and the plumbing might get a bit wonky, so if it will still work then I'd rather not.

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

Here is a bump for you.

 

[jasonrusso]

Here is a bump for you.

Thanks. I think I am just going to add the recirc pump anyway. I'm just trying to figure out where to put the effluent and feed hoses onto the system.

 

[saltgeek1]

From the research and running my own, the recirculation in the chamber essentially gives you an equivalent to a very large chamber. It is the same principle behind why most other reaction chambers have moved to recirculation, it saves you tons of space. Hope that helps, there is a picture of mine.

 

[saltgeek1]

Just realized that the recirculation pump is facing away from the camera, but this is a Aquamaxx T2 and it works great, reduced my 400gallon system NO3 from 16ppm to 0.5ppm which is where I can hold the tank. I have few large tangs. Before installing this 6months ago I was trying to reduce the nitrates with water changes but the share volume I tried did not help (50gallons a week for a month and no change in the NO3 levels).

 

[jasonrusso]

Just realized that the recirculation pump is facing away from the camera, but this is a Aquamaxx T2 and it works great, reduced my 400gallon system NO3 from 16ppm to 0.5ppm which is where I can hold the tank. I have few large tangs. Before installing this 6months ago I was trying to reduce the nitrates with water changes but the share volume I tried did not help (50gallons a week for a month and no change in the NO3 levels).

I wish you replied a month ago when I was still building it!! I ended up recirculating it. It kind of looks messy but it is working! That's all that matters and it cost less than $100 for a used phosban 150, 2 cobalt pumps and the quick connects. It's on my red sea 130 (34 gallon)



This is the one I bought. This is very similar to yours, but it is a large seapora (same size and pump as a TS-2) and the pump is on the bottom. I couldn't build it for cheaper than I could buy it for.

 

[saltgeek1]

I wish you replied a month ago when I was still building it!! I ended up recirculating it. It kind of looks messy but it is working! That's all that matters and it cost less than $100 for a used phosban 150, 2 cobalt pumps and the quick connects. It's on my red sea 130 (34 gallon)



This is the one I bought. This is very similar to yours, but it is a large seapora (same size and pump as a TS-2) and the pump is on the bottom. I couldn't build it for cheaper than I could buy it for.

I like it, in our hobby all that matters is that our pets are fat and happy :)