Sulfur denitrator

[ScottF]

I made my little BNC crossover cable and now I'm getting a value of 301 for that probe in Fusion. What does ORP indicate in a sulfur reactor? Am I trying to achieve a specific value?

I watched the Parkers Reef video on sulfur reactors and it sounds like if I want lower NO3, I would slow down my feeder pump. IS this correct? I still have Kamoer FX-STP running at full speed and my nitrates have come down to 7.7. Which is where I want them. I'll try to find time later today to test the effluent.

 

[Sean Clark]

I made my little BNC crossover cable and now I'm getting a value of 301 for that probe in Fusion. What does ORP indicate in a sulfur reactor? Am I trying to achieve a specific value?

I watched the Parkers Reef video on sulfur reactors and it sounds like if I want lower NO3, I would slow down my feeder pump. IS this correct? I still have Kamoer FX-STP running at full speed and my nitrates have come down to 7.7. Which is where I want them. I'll try to find time later today to test the effluent.

240-250 is good anything below 0 is anoxic as in zero oxygen environment. Too low 400ish and you start building up hydrogen sulfide which is bad.

 

[ScottF]

This sulfur denitator is pure effin magic. I plugged it in, haven't tuned it at all, and it's brought my nitrates down to a steady 6. My pH is actually slightly higher now than it was with carbon dosing vinegar saturated with kalk powder and my corals seem to be a lot happier. They never seemed to like the carbon dosing.

Now I just need to read up on how to tune this. How I would raise (smaller negative) the ORP a little.

 

[CHSUB]

This sulfur denitator is pure effin magic. I plugged it in, haven't tuned it at all, and it's brought my nitrates down to a steady 6. My pH is actually slightly higher now than it was with carbon dosing vinegar saturated with kalk powder and my corals seem to be a lot happier. They never seemed to like the carbon dosing.

Now I just need to read up on how to tune this. How I would raise (smaller negative) the ORP a little.

More flow or less sulfur.

 

[Funkateer_1]

I use an Aquamaxx on my 90g. Only about a liter of Sulfur prill and 3L of CaRX media ontop. Takes about 3-5 months to really get going. Nitrates are always less than 10 in the display and 0.0 on a Hanna out the effluent. They are miracle workers.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

This sulfur denitator is pure effin magic. I plugged it in, haven't tuned it at all, and it's brought my nitrates down to a steady 6. My pH is actually slightly higher now than it was with carbon dosing vinegar saturated with kalk powder and my corals seem to be a lot happier. They never seemed to like the carbon dosing.

Now I just need to read up on how to tune this. How I would raise (smaller negative) the ORP a little.

Expect to have alk demand higher now, but not calcium demand, which makes using a product like kalk or AFR or a CaCO3/CO2 reactor more problematic.

 

[ScottF]

Expect to have alk demand higher now, but not calcium demand, which makes using a product like kalk or AFR or a CaCO3/CO2 reactor more problematic.

Not a problem. I dose kalkwasser to match my evaporation and then two part sodium carbonate/calcium chloride as needed.

If anything, the higher alk demand helps offset the drop in pH from the sulfur reactor by allowing me to dose more soda ash solution.

 

[ScottF]

The ORP in my reactor suddenly dropped from -300ish to 0. I think maybe the media is clogged and the water is not recirculating. The feeder pump is working. There is water entering and exiting the reactor, but I think it's just going through the top and out.

If I unplug and plug in the recirculation pump, the ORP does drop back down to -260ish briefly. I see some bubbles start to go from the pump into the large chamber and then then some tiny bubbles just sit in the top of the pipe from the pump to the chamber.

I also see a spot in the middle of the media where the sulfur is getting dark. I do have two types of sulfur media. I had orders some from Geo's reef not knowing that my Pacific Sun reactor would come with some. I'm wondering if I should remove the finer Pacific Sun media and replace it with the coarser Geo's reef media.

The slightly darker media in the big chamber is reborn. The lighter is CaribSea ARM.

 

[ScottF]

So I replaced the sulfur media with the more coarse Geo's Reef media and I think I figured out what my problem is after I had everything hooked back up and running.

I put the sulfur in the small chamber which is top fed and the ARM in the large chamber which is bottom fed. I think the suction coming from the bottom of the small chamber is causing the sulfur media to clog. I think that I should have reversed that and bottom fed the sulfur.

 

[ScottF]

It was a pain in the butt, but I tore it apart and reconfigured the media. We'll see how it goes...

 

[iReefer12]

This is very common.. I have a GEO calcium reactor that I’ve converted to SD. The biggest problem I have is that the media clumps and try’s to float up to the top.. now water isn’t really passing through the media, so it’s not terribly efficient.

When they work, they are awesome, but I feel like someone needs to come up with a better design.. or perhaps different media, much bigger pieces of sulfur.. the GEO Sulfur is so fine, that causes it to stick to each other and clump up.

 

[ScottF]

This is very common.. I have a GEO calcium reactor that I’ve converted to SD. The biggest problem I have is that the media clumps and try’s to float up to the top.. now water isn’t really passing through the media, so it’s not terribly efficient.

When they work, they are awesome, but I feel like someone needs to come up with a better design.. or perhaps different media, much bigger pieces of sulfur.. the GEO Sulfur is so fine, that causes it to stick to each other and clump up.

The GEO Sulfur media is actually less fine than the Sulfur media that Pacific Sun included with my reactor.

I never really thought about why we bottom feed reactors until now. It makes sense that flow + gravity is going to force all of the media to clump together and clog when pushing down from the top. Pushing up from the bottom is going to push the media apart and is less likely to clog.

So far the four or five inches of reborn mixed with ARM sitting on top of my sulfur has kept it from floating to the top. Fingers crossed that everything will just work now. Though I should probably move my feeder pump to the output side and suck through the reactor instead of pushing into the reactor to avoid it clogging.