New sulfur denitrator working great!

[mtfish]

If you are getting high readings coming from effluent then one of two things are going on. One, need to reduce flow rate until bacteria populate. Two, not enough media to handle the load. Something that helped me out to start is that I put my sulfur media in a one gallon container and poured tank water to cover and let that sit there for about a week. I think this jumpstarted the bacteria and my "break-end" period was less than two weeks with getting zero nitrates out of the reactor.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

I run mine full blast and it reads 0. When there is air in it just let it run wide open with the circ pump on it will clear over night

 

[JWREA123]

If you are getting high readings coming from effluent then one of two things are going on. One, need to reduce flow rate until bacteria populate. Two, not enough media to handle the load. Something that helped me out to start is that I put my sulfur media in a one gallon container and poured tank water to cover and let that sit there for about a week. I think this jumpstarted the bacteria and my "break-end" period was less than two weeks with getting zero nitrates out of the reactor.

Thanks for the reply I Iowered drip rate.hope that will help will see in a week

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

it takes a few weeks to take off any get going when i ran mine at the suggested drip rate i came home one day and the whole house smelled like rotten eggs i opened it wide open and its been that way since that was a year ago i could never get it to run slowly off drip rates without the smell. the return is 0 even at full blast these things are very effective

 

[JWREA123]

I do not understand what is going on have slowed the drip right to one drop per 2nd for a week now and when I test the Water Exiting The reactor my test kit still goes off the chart I'm using a Nyos nitrate test kit And as soon as I add the 1st agent it instantly terms bright yellow I do not understand why. The aquarium is testing at 35 ppm . I don't understand what's going on the water should be testing At least better than the water going in not worse could there be something coming out of the reactor that would mess up the nitrate test Any help would be much appreciated

 

[mtfish]

I do not understand what is going on have slowed the drip right to one drop per 2nd for a week now and when I test the Water Exiting The reactor my test kit still goes off the chart I'm using a Nyos nitrate test kit And as soon as I add the 1st agent it instantly terms bright yellow I do not understand why. The aquarium is testing at 35 ppm . I don't understand what's going on the water should be testing At least better than the water going in not worse could there be something coming out of the reactor that would mess up the nitrate test Any help would be much appreciated

I have heard of this happening and my understanding the nitrogen cycle is stuck and what you high readings are actually nitrites and not nitrates. Somewhere earlier in this thread I posted a link to reef central on sulfur reactors. You may want to take a look at that and see if you can find some pointers to help you. Don't give up, you will get there.

 

[rcmike]

I do not understand what is going on have slowed the drip right to one drop per 2nd for a week now and when I test the Water Exiting The reactor my test kit still goes off the chart I'm using a Nyos nitrate test kit And as soon as I add the 1st agent it instantly terms bright yellow I do not understand why. The aquarium is testing at 35 ppm . I don't understand what's going on the water should be testing At least better than the water going in not worse could there be something coming out of the reactor that would mess up the nitrate test Any help would be much appreciated

If there is still nitrIte present in the effluent it will cause the nitrAte reading to be off and read much higher. When it gets completely cycled there won’t be any nitrites.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

2 weeks is not long enough for the reactor to get enough bacteria in it it takes at least a month

 

[puckett26]

I have ordered a reactor it will be here Friday. I was trying to do more research and found this thread. I read every single post instead of actually working today. I feel like I know what I’m doing and I haven’t even touched my reactor yet. So much info to absorb. Great read!

 

[puckett26]

Has anyone using the Aquamaxx Sulfur Denitrator had there reactor leak? Mine is leaking at tthe Sicce Pump. Cant figure out how to stop it. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[mtfish]

Has anyone using the Aquamaxx Sulfur Denitrator had there reactor leak? Mine is leaking at tthe Sicce Pump. Cant figure out how to stop it. Any help would be appreciated.

Make sure O-ring is seated and no debris is on the face surface. Do not over tighten or you may deform the O-ring. Use silicon grease to make a water-tight seal. That's all I have. Good luck getting it sealed.

 

[Jon_W79]

Has anyone using the Aquamaxx Sulfur Denitrator had there reactor leak? Mine is leaking at tthe Sicce Pump. Cant figure out how to stop it. Any help would be appreciated.

They may have made it wrong. If they made it wrong you won't be able to tighten it the right amount, and you will have to use silicone grease and/or something else.

 

[nldemo]

For me, the way I get air out of the system is to turn off the recircuiting pump so all the gas (or air) is at the top of the chamber. Then I tilt it for the air to get into the outlet port. Then the gas (air) bubbles surround the outlet tube and the pressure pushes the gas out. If you try this with the recirculating pump on it will just push the gas through the whole chamber and not have time to exit. When first starting up, I did have to play the plug the circulating pump on for short burst to get trapped air to the top. Kind of a pain but was successful.

Thank you. I actually ended up doing the same technique on my own. My unit was producing a lot of bubbles so I was worried about oxygen ruining the whole process. Must be just nitrate gas being generated within my denitrator, as even at full blast I am getting 0 nitrates now. My nitrates were sky high, well over 160ppm. They are now down to 60ppm in the tank. I'm hoping I can dial it back a bit in the future (for alkalinity reasons), but for now my nitrates problem is solved. I am super happy with this device.

@JWREA123 my unit took about 3 weeks until it was coming out at 0ppm. I also stopped carbon dosing completely (used to do vodka dosing).

 

[puckett26]

They may have made it wrong. If they made it wrong you won't be able to tighten it the right amount, and you will have to use silicone grease and/or something else.

There was a slight crack where the elbow screws into the pump. Contacted Marine Depot and the sent me another pump. It should be here Wednesday. They said that this often happens during shipping.

 

[JWREA123]

Thank you. I actually ended up doing the same technique on my own. My unit was producing a lot of bubbles so I was worried about oxygen ruining the whole process. Must be just nitrate gas being generated within my denitrator, as even at full blast I am getting 0 nitrates now. My nitrates were sky high, well over 160ppm. They are now down to 60ppm in the tank. I'm hoping I can dial it back a bit in the future (for alkalinity reasons), but for now my nitrates problem is solved. I am super happy with this device.

@JWREA123 my unit took about 3 weeks until it was coming out at 0ppm. I also

Thank you. I actually ended up doing the same technique on my own. My unit was producing a lot of bubbles so I was worried about oxygen ruining the whole process. Must be just nitrate gas being generated within my denitrator, as even at full blast I am getting 0 nitrates now. My nitrates were sky high, well over 160ppm. They are now down to 60ppm in the tank. I'm hoping I can dial it back a bit in the future (for alkalinity reasons), but for now my nitrates problem is solved. I am super happy with this device.

@JWREA123 my unit took about 3 weeks until it was coming out at 0ppm. I also stopped carbon dosing completely (used to do vodka dosing).

Thank you for the comments my unit has been up and running now for 4 weeks I am still getting nitrite In the water coming out of the Sulfur reactor And has started getting a lot of gas in it in the past 3 days I do not think air is getting in it. I think it is gas being formed inside the reactor. I was also wondering how long did you get nitrite coming from your unit . It has been giving me a lot of trouble trying to keep the Drip rate steady it is extremely aggravating. How much longer do you think it would take to complete It's cycle?

 

[2Wheelsonly]

Ok hopefully some experienced folks can help me out. I am several month in on running this sulfur denitrator (Aquamaxx TS-2 with 350G volume). My in tank nitrates are 25-30...

I ran it closed for a bit, go sulfur smell and opened it up to about 7.5 ml per second.

I have a manifold off my return pump with full open flow into the reactor to create pressure and I have a kamoer peristlatic pump on the exit to control drip. This method never clogs and the drip rate is extremely consistent.

Now, I bumped up my effluent to 15 and then to 25 with a no3 output of maybe .2 (extremely faint pink test kit). I just recently bumped it to 35ml/sec and after 2 days noticed that my effluent is around 10-15 now with the tank still sitting at 25-30.

Will it eventually start to lower again as more bacteria grows inside or is this an indicator that I have reached the capacity of my TS-2 (which means it's very weak). Am I doing this right? How long after bumping up the effluent do things kick back in and start getting back to close to or at 0 no3 output?

 

[Jon_W79]

Ok hopefully some experienced folks can help me out. I am several month in on running this sulfur denitrator (Aquamaxx TS-2 with 350G volume). My in tank nitrates are 25-30...

I ran it closed for a bit, go sulfur smell and opened it up to about 7.5 ml per second.

I have a manifold off my return pump with full open flow into the reactor to create pressure and I have a kamoer peristlatic pump on the exit to control drip. This method never clogs and the drip rate is extremely consistent.

Now, I bumped up my effluent to 15 and then to 25 with a no3 output of maybe .2 (extremely faint pink test kit). I just recently bumped it to 35ml/sec and after 2 days noticed that my effluent is around 10-15 now with the tank still sitting at 25-30.

Will it eventually start to lower again as more bacteria grows inside or is this an indicator that I have reached the capacity of my TS-2 (which means it's very weak). Am I doing this right? How long after bumping up the effluent do things kick back in and start getting back to close to or at 0 no3 output?

You must have meant to say ml per minute. 15ml per minute would have only been about 40 gallons a week. It's not surprising that that(or less than that amount)didn't affect nitrate very much. I think that the effluent will go to zero nitrate(or close to it) soon. You might want to start increasing the flow into the SD more slowly. If you dose a significant amount of iron, that might help the bacteria grow a lot. The iron content of synthetic sea salts might not even be the most ideal amount of iron for the bacteria.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

You must have ment to say ml per minute. 15ml per minute would have only been about 40 gallons a week. It's not surprising that that(or less than that amount)didn't affect nitrate very much. I think that the effluent will go to zero nitrate(or close to it) soon. You might want to start increasing the flow into the SD more slowly. If you dose a significant amount of iron, that might help the bacteria grow a lot. The iron content of synthetic sea salts might not even be the most ideal amount of iron for the bacteria.

Yes I meant to say per minute.

My fear is that at if at 35ml per minute I can't get effluent to zero does that mean my TS-2 is too small for my tank? That drip rate seems extremely slow the amount of sulfur and size of my reactor. If that's the case then these things are not the efficient nitrate destroyers I thought they were and maybe a 300g tank needs a reactor capable of holding 30-40 lbs of sulfur media.

 

[Jon_W79]

Yes I meant to say per minute.

My fear is that at if at 35ml per minute I can't get effluent to zero does that mean my TS-2 is too small for my tank? That drip rate seems extremely slow the amount of sulfur and size of my reactor. If that's the case then these things are not the efficient nitrate destroyers I thought they were and maybe a 300g tank needs a reactor capable of holding 30-40 lbs of sulfur media.

If the only reason you can't get 0 nitrate is because you don't have enough sulfur, I would say the answer is yes(obviously). I think it may be too soon to come to that conclusion. And I think the reactor size is unlikely to be the most significant cause of the effluent having 10-15 nitrate from the test you took.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

My assumption is that there are certain things in the water that we can't test for that prevent these things from working or they are extremely in-efficient. After adjusting to 35ml per minute my nitrates are starting to rise out of the effluent (after 5 days) and not lower. 15ml per minute is my sweet spot and it's just not going to cut it for a 300g tank. The sulfur denitrator has been online for about 7-8 months now so it's not like I'm being impatient.

Verdict: Wasted my money, I would need about 10-15 of these things to make a dent in my nutrients and since carbon dosing and water changes don't lower nitrates I have to live with them. I'm going to take it offline and throw it away as it's taking space...thankfully it was only a $280 mistake. Lesson learned, stop trying to use garbage equipment and hacks to lower nutrients and just live with them.