[Delphinus]

Okey dokey. End of day 10, got a chance to go a little test crazy:

Tank water:
Salifert NO3: could be 25 or could be 50
Elos NO3: darker than 50 but lighter than 75
pH: 8.2

I'm going to split the difference and call it "50ppm NO3" in the tank.

Reactor effluent:
Salifert NO3: 50ppm
Elos NO3: >75ppm (chart only goes to 75, it was darker than the 75 reference)
Salifert NO3: >= 4ppm (chart goes to 4.0, was at least as dark as the 4.0 reference, I think it was pretty close actually)
pH: 7.6

Soooo ... my interpretation: The Elos nitrate test kit is thrown off by any presence of nitrite in the test water. Reactor is definitely not cycled at this point.

I'm not sure if this is a good idea, but I shut off the feed altogether tonight and am just letting the water cycle through the sulfur with the recirc pump. If the problem is too much O2 in the feed water preventing a cycle from forming then this should help with that.

I still do wonder if the LSM media is somehow not as good as maybe some other choice. The Midwest Aquatic media that comes with bacteria preseeded, for example, or maybe winemaking sulfur is somehow a more pure grade, or something like that.