DIY Sulfur Denitrator

[saltydog64]

Originally posted by Black71gp
Degasing I mean opening the vent at the top of the first chamber and letting the gas that builds up out. and there is TONS more when i run the recirc pump.. like i have to open the vent at least twice a day as the gas is about an inch or so down from the top. If i turn the pump off. i only have to degas once every two to three days.. and never near as much as the other time.

THe reactor to the left is my CO2 reactor. Water flow goes to the SR from a MJ1200 then out to the tank from there.. flow is out of the top of the second chamber..

Ya i could get rid of the arm in the seconds chamber.. would it be worth filling one chamber with bio matrix and the other with lots of sulfur??

I have used salifert kits and they read pretty close to the cheappy one i use now. thats just for reference to see if its even close to 0 yet.. will see how this works with runing the recirc pump all the time.

Black71.........Venting @ top SR is STD, of course, but what I was referring to was the presence of H2S........are you getting that smell ???? If so that would seem to indicate something is out of serious balance, being that your set up has not reached "zero" tank Nitrates, it was this that was confusing me. Hopefully dJ can jump in here if he is back.......

Now on the 2nd reactor, it would seem to me that the ARM in there could all ready be charged with some bacteria, so what you might do is 1) remove approx. 1/2 or more of the ARM, and replace it with Sulfur (if you could add some NBC #9 good) then reverse the flow by first flowing into the bottom of the " ARM reactor, out the top, then into the SR. With your size tank (system) this might be worth a try...

I see what you mean about your test kit(s) hey if your happy that's all that matters..........

In summary with your situation, while VERY flustrating, I think a large part is due to your initial high Nitrates as I too am "stilling cycling" but into a 5 gal. bucket and replishig about 1 gal fresh sea water (salt mix) daliy, hey you know what ? the tank looks great and I'm finally growing coralline alges....looks great...nothing like a slow, steady water change, I don't mind why ? because "failure is not an option" Man I liked that movie...... Good luck and keep us updated...

Dick

[reef_only]

Originally posted by kcress
Dang it's not working either. I reversed hoses. I charged it up till it was fully purged with water coming out the vent in a solid stream.

The outlet comes from the same chamber the recirc feeds and leads into my tank under the surface. Once it was running I turned off the feed pump and unplugged the feed line from it so it could become the outlet and I could watch the drips. Water was coming out in a weak stream. I throttle it down and it just wanted to ether flow or not but not just drip. Then the circ pump started cavitating.

I'm getting lost now, why you want the feed line to become outlet after it started? so basically you have 3 pipes one is the vent to degas, the other is the intake to feed the reactor from tank water and the outlet that will return water from reactor back to sump. You turn on the pump that to feed the reactor and after filling up by seeing water coming out from both of the vent and outlet then turn on the circ. and close the vent output, is it right?

[djfrankie]

OK, guys I'm back.

Will get updated tonight with all the posts. Wow things really move fast around here

djfrankie

[kcress]

Reef; I got it working! Yes I thought I was being clear enough.

I wanted to use the bottom tap for the output since the recirc pressurizes the bottom of the chamber. But to purge the chamber you have to fill the chamber from below. So I temporarily use the external powerhead to charge the column then unhook it hoping that the finished product will come back up it back into the tank.

The influent comes into the column at the top where the recirc pump is creating a lower pressure.

This scheme failed with the column next to the tank. The columns top was about 5 inches higher than my tank. Rather like djfrankie's installation.

I moved the unit to the floor so it is now entirely below the tank and wah-lah it works great. Drip a second turned way down.

I'm going to start testing for nitrite right?

[Black71gp]

Originally posted by saltydog64
Black71.........Venting @ top SR is STD, of course, but what I was referring to was the presence of H2S........are you getting that smell ???? If so that would seem to indicate something is out of serious balance, being that your set up has not reached "zero" tank Nitrates, it was this that was confusing me. Hopefully dJ can jump in here if he is back.......

Now on the 2nd reactor, it would seem to me that the ARM in there could all ready be charged with some bacteria, so what you might do is 1) remove approx. 1/2 or more of the ARM, and replace it with Sulfur (if you could add some NBC #9 good) then reverse the flow by first flowing into the bottom of the " ARM reactor, out the top, then into the SR. With your size tank (system) this might be worth a try...

I see what you mean about your test kit(s) hey if your happy that's all that matters..........

In summary with your situation, while VERY flustrating, I think a large part is due to your initial high Nitrates as I too am "stilling cycling" but into a 5 gal. bucket and replishig about 1 gal fresh sea water (salt mix) daliy, hey you know what ? the tank looks great and I'm finally growing coralline alges....looks great...nothing like a slow, steady water change, I don't mind why ? because "failure is not an option" Man I liked that movie...... Good luck and keep us updated...

Dick

the gas I vent out the top DOES have a strong smell... more gas with recirc pump on.. than with pump off...

[reef_only]

Originally posted by Black71gp
the gas I vent out the top DOES have a strong smell... more gas with recirc pump on.. than with pump off...

I don't see much gas in my reactor when it's running. Is it possible that the gas from yours is the air trapped in the chammber? When I start my circ. pump there is lots of air trap in the reactor got circulated, I had to open both vent and outlet all the way for a minute or so so all the water with bubbles to drain out and after that close the vent and adjust outlet drip rate, there no bubble and the circulation gets very quiet after that.

[reef_only]

Originally posted by kcress
Reef; I got it working! Yes I thought I was being clear enough.

I wanted to use the bottom tap for the output since the recirc pressurizes the bottom of the chamber. But to purge the chamber you have to fill the chamber from below. So I temporarily use the external powerhead to charge the column then unhook it hoping that the finished product will come back up it back into the tank.

The influent comes into the column at the top where the recirc pump is creating a lower pressure.

This scheme failed with the column next to the tank. The columns top was about 5 inches higher than my tank. Rather like djfrankie's installation.

I moved the unit to the floor so it is now entirely below the tank and wah-lah it works great. Drip a second turned way down.

I'm going to start testing for nitrite right?

You can test it every day or every other days depends on how much patience you have

[Black71gp]

no gas is not from bubbles from recirc pump or anything.. just builds up over time.. tonight checked the effluent. 0 nitrate at around 3dps.. so thats a good thing.. going to leave it for another day or so.. then up it a little. I am running the recirc pump full time now.....

[skippyreef]

good to hear you're getting results Jarrod!!

[wizsmaster]

Jarrod,

PM me your address, and I'll send you some of the NBC #9 powder if I can find tomorrow. maybe that will help you out a bit.

[reef_only]

my tank gets little cloudy after running this nitrate reactor. Has anyone seen similar?

[EnderG60]

only one of the ones I made clouded the tank for a few days...but that was because I forgot to rinse the aragonite first....

[saltydog64]

Originally posted by djfrankie
OK, guys I'm back.

Will get updated tonight with all the posts. Wow things really move fast around here

djfrankie

dj............Welcome back......

Yes your right things have been on the move and all are glad your back, as you can see this "thing" continous to grow as you can see by the "new" names here. Nice...

Dick

[saltydog64]

Originally posted by Black71gp
no gas is not from bubbles from recirc pump or anything.. just builds up over time.. tonight checked the effluent. 0 nitrate at around 3dps.. so thats a good thing.. going to leave it for another day or so.. then up it a little. I am running the recirc pump full time now.....

Jarrod.......Hey I think you got it..............as 0 Nitrates @ 3 dsp is great. At that rate do you get the rotten egg smell, @ the VV, I mean, once you smell this, there is no mistakening it for a "strong smell".
If so, it could mean you must bump up the FR a little more...

[Black71gp]

no smell other than when i vent.. nothing from the effluent... i raised it a few dps tonight

[Lewy]

I have purchased the Korallin item a few weeks ago and have been following the RC denitrator threads with great interest.

The unit has finally started to kick in with the Nitrate levels in the effluent dropping quite dramatically in the last few days.

What I did find was that the 1 drop per second is still too fast. You want a very very slow drip rate to enable the bacteria to populate.

When I have my nitrates under control I was going to take it offline and replace most of the sulphur with seachem matrix as I read about in other forums.

If I dry out the suplhur beads that I have taken out. Would the bacteria remain dormant until I next used it? Lets say in a few months time or even years?

So when I do have to replace the suplhur in the reactor. It will cycle a lot faster.

[kcress]

Here's my NitrateBioReactor build:

Here's the stuff I started with. Some things changed as the build proceeded. I'm gonna give the LSM sulfur a try since it's way less money.


I found this cool flange that is called a test flange. It comes pre-sealed so pressure testing can be done without plugs being needed.


The flange has this tab on it that the plumber is supposed to grab with pliers and rip out after testing. The tab actually sticks above the plane which would cause a nasty rocking situation. I used a razor knife to carve the tab below grade.


Pipe glued to flange.

[kcress]

Here's the diffusion plate to keep the media from plugging the recirc port. I Punched it out with my CNC router. First plexy I ever routed. Went off without a hitch. I was stoked! I glued a single rod on it to stand it off the column's bottom. This turned out to be a major sadistic nightmare. I was never able to stick it all the way down the pipe even after about 30 attempts. I finally snapped off the peg. I took a piece of schedule 120 PVC 1-1/2". I drilled it full of a million holes. I dropped it down the barrel. When I had it fairly centered I dropped the plate down the hole. This was followed by a ScotchBrite disk. I followed that with a layer of Matrix. Then a homogenized 50/50 mix of matrix and sulfur up to the top. Followed by another ScotchBrite disk.


Here's the upper port inside and outside views.



Vent inside/outside.

[kcress]

Finished product. As I mentioned I've switched ports. My outlet is at the bottom. The inlet is the top. No external pump needed as long as the unit is below the tank.


So far, 48hrs, no sign of anything happening at 1 drip/min.

My tank has more than 500ppm nitrate as is evident by this test.


160ppm is the bottom reading. The sample you are looking at is diluted. It is 0.5ml of tank water mixed with 4.5ml of RO water. That's a 10X dilution up against 160ppm. So I'm really interested in seeing this thing working.

[Kreeger1]

My new base plate made of 1 1/4" acyrlic

[Black71gp]

awesome looking build!!!!!!

[Steve 926]

Originally posted by Kreeger1
My new base plate made of 1 1/4" acyrlic

THAT'S THE "CAT'S MEOW"


Steve

[hotwired99]

Is ABS pipe ok to use on our tanks? I have heard that its not.....

[Kreeger1]

Thanks man, no more uni seals for me

[Steve 926]

1/8" lip?, 1/2 "bore?, 6" tube?,

Thanks for a reply

Steve