New sulfur denitrator working great!

[jasonrusso]

I would increase the flow a little then wait few days increase more. Continue to increase little by little every week till you start to register no3 then cut back little to last days flow where you didnt have any no3.

I think I am at that point, but because of the NO2 I can't accurately test for the NO3. Maybe I am flowing TOO slow and it is causing some sort of other reaction where the NO3 isn't being consumed completely??

I have had it up and running for about 3 months now. I have had physical media problems. My reactor doesn't have a top diffuser plate as it was designed to use bio-balls. Just as it seems like it is about to "kick", the media starts getting pushed up. This causes the media to get sucked into the suction side clogging up the recirc pump, this happened 3 times. Two other times the media started churning and really clouded up the tank. All 5 times resulted in dissembling (never removing the media or drying out completely) and trying to redesign. I think I finally solved it this weekend.

Is this why I am having issues? Is it not completely cycled because of the disassembly?

 

[jasonrusso]

And just for info, I ran my TS-3 for about 9 months and never had to release any pressure build up. It naturally made it's way out the outlet tube.

Did you have N2 circulating inside the reactor? Mine is recirculating air around the pump. I think it will make it's way out when the flow can be increased.

 

[Fudsey]

I had air in mine but all I did was tip it to force the air out of the return pipe. Not sure what you mean by N2.

If you have disassembled it, I wouldn't doubt you'd have issues with it. My media never moved at all. I would think it would disrupt the bacteria if it tumbled at all.

 

[jasonrusso]

I had air in mine but all I did was tip it to force the air out of the return pipe. Not sure what you mean by N2.

If you have disassembled it, I wouldn't doubt you'd have issues with it. My media never moved at all. I would think it would disrupt the bacteria if it tumbled at all.

N2=nitrogen gas

Mine tumbled because there was nothing holding it down on top. Now I have a screen with the plastic bioballs pushing it down.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Do you guys find that you have to periodically replace the media? At some point is the sulfur exhausted even if it physically remains, or is it providing sulfur until it completely dissolves away?

 

[Dr. Reef]

Sulfur does get consumed over time and needs to be filled back up. But time frame for such will depend on media reactor size tank size water flow nitrates coming in etc but safe to say 2 to few years.
I had a undersized unit that barely kept up and I replenished the media after 2 years or so and even then I had 25% old media left in the reactor.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Sulfur does get consumed over time and needs to be filled back up. But time frame for such will depend on media reactor size tank size water flow nitrates coming in etc but safe to say 2 to few years.
I had a undersized unit that barely kept up and I replenished the media after 2 years or so and even then I had 25% old media left in the reactor.

So as long as the media is still physically present it should be providing sufficient sulfur?

 

[Dr. Reef]

So as long as the media is still physically present it should be providing sufficient sulfur?

That is correct. As long as there is media in reactor, bacteria will continue to do its job.
But there is a balance, if media gets consumed and is less than the balance then nitrates will start to creek up. At that point you will have to place new media in or if reactor size is not enough then upgrade.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I’m in the process of cycling my reactor after a cleaning, right now the effluent is reading 100ppm when the tank water is only 10ppm. Is this nitrite or some other intermediate interfering with the test result? I haven’t ever seen effluent nitrate higher than source water in the past but maybe I just missed it.

 

[skr791346]

I’m in the process of cycling my reactor after a cleaning, right now the effluent is reading 100ppm when the tank water is only 10ppm. Is this nitrite or some other intermediate interfering with the test result? I haven’t ever seen effluent nitrate higher than source water in the past but maybe I just missed it.

I noticed something similar for about a day or two after cleaning. Nitrate went quickly back to 0 within 4 to 5 days though. When I checked for nitrite, it was 0 but I would still test just in case.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I noticed something similar for about a day or two after cleaning. Nitrate went quickly back to 0 within 4 to 5 days though. When I checked for nitrite, it was 0 but I would still test just in case.

Mines been setup for maybe two weeks since I cleaned it out but this is the first time I’ve tested the effluent.

 

[skr791346]

Mines been setup for maybe two weeks since I cleaned it out but this is the first time I’ve tested the effluent.

To clarify, by cleaned out, are you starting with brand new media or rinsing out old media?

In my case, I rinsed out my old media that had some slime build up. If you're starting out again with brand new media, then it's a different case than what I went through. How many drops / second do you have it set to? Check nitrite; if you're using brand new media, then it's typical to get wacky nitrate results when there's nitrite present in the effluent.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

To clarify, by cleaned out, are you starting with brand new media or rinsing out old media?

In my case, I rinsed out my old media that had some slime build up. If you're starting out again with brand new media, then it's a different case than what I went through. How many drops / second do you have it set to? Check nitrite; if you're using brand new media, then it's typical to get wacky nitrate results when there's nitrite present in the effluent.

New CaRx media, old thoroughly rinsed sulfur media.

 

[skr791346]

New CaRx media, old thoroughly rinsed sulfur media.

What was the effluent nitrate before you rinsed it out and what drip rate was it running at? What drip rate is it running at now?

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

What was the effluent nitrate before you rinsed it out and what drip rate was it running at? What drip rate is it running at now?

Last time it was running smoothly the effluent was reading 0, the tank was reading 2.5, and the effluent flow rate was around 30-40 mL/min. My valve got clogged and so flow was shut off from the reactor for a few days. I flushed the reactor and tried to pick up where it left off but it just kept reading same out as in as nitrate readings slowly climbed in the tank. So I cleaned it out since there was some algae growing it it, I figured that might be releasing oxygen into the chamber causing it to not work, and some bacterial buildup had clogged the valve a few times.

Effluent rate right now is 17.5 mL/min. I don’t have a nitrite kit to check the effluent.

 

[Fudsey]

Just something to ponder, do you think that your sulfur may be exhausted?

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

If you look a few posts above, I was asking about that as well... wasn’t sure if the media gets exhausted or not. Seems like as long as the media is still present it should still be good...

 

[Fudsey]

I'm not sure if it does or not, was just a question that popped into my head.

 

[UCF Alum]

How much of a drop in alk have you guys noticed while using a denitrator?

I didn't notice much a drop while effluent was few drops per second but now that I have effluent full stream, alk dropped sharply and I'm nearly double the amount of alk I used to dose. Just wanted to check and see if this was normal?

My alk consumption more than tripled. The Koralline SD was nothing but problems for me. Short term it worked great. Long term not so much. Bacteria flocks build up and spew back into that tank in the form of sulfur. It stinks and effected my SPS. Even running wide open 150+ gallons per day, it was spitting out 0 nitrates, but stunk like eggs. I suggest all you new SD users be careful long term and watch your tank closely after your able to run it wide open. I used one, but not without drawbacks.

 

[UCF Alum]

Anyone have any issues with mulm build up on their Aquamaxx reactors? Nitrate is 0 coming out even at full stream but I can't seem to keep the ORP at -174 to -203 for longer than a month. Mulm builds up, restricting flow and ORP shoots up to -572 and I keep having to take the reactor apart, rinse media of bacteria build up to have the same issue again soon after about a month.

One of the reasons my Koralline is now in the garage. Nothing but a hassle. Take the thing apart, clean it, lose the cycle in the process then start all over again.