Sulfur denitrator experiment

Delphinus · #1 12-01-2006, 04:36 PM

The tank I would like to move it to, and keep it on permanently, has 25ppm NO3.

The tank it is currently on, has 75ppm. It shouldn't have gotten that high but ... I guess I've been more or less neglecting that tank lately.

Ooops, well anyhow I've fixed it's skimmer, I'll kick off a nice big water change soon, but thought I would take advantage of the high nitrates to see if my little experiment here will work. If it knocks the number down from that high a starting point then we know that this is working.

Farrmanchu · #2 12-01-2006, 04:53 PM

Don't you need to "seed" the new sulphur media? Thought there was a special bacteria envolved.

Delphinus · #3 12-01-2006, 05:19 PM

There is, but my assumption here is that you create the anoxic zone and the culture will develop on its own, much like any other biological filter, or DSB. "If you build it they will come." That's why there is a "cycling" stage to these things.

reeferaddict · #4 12-01-2006, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delphinus

There is, but my assumption here is that you create the anoxic zone and the culture will develop on its own, much like any other biological filter, or DSB. "If you build it they will come." That's why there is a "cycling" stage to these things.

Yes there IS a cycling time Tony... I bought one in the summer and have been running it ever since with great results... I bought a Korralin 1501 with sulfur media and it took about a month before my nitrates started to drop, but once they did, I have had them at ZERO for over 3 months now. I too feed my overstocked tank generously and best of all... no more $100 a month in salt!

Skimmerking · #5 12-02-2006, 12:40 AM

Tony sounds good. I hope that i can get one if I can figure out this kalk reactor that i have I may have to fix it into a sulphur reactor too. here is a picture of the kalk reactor.. the one on the right what ya think TOny is it workable.

Delphinus · #6 12-02-2006, 03:20 AM

Potentially .. you might end up needing to modify it quite a bit though. The kalk reactor mix path is from the bottom to about partway up, whereas you'd want to fill as much of the chamber as possible with the media, so the mix path needs to go from the bottom to right to the top. The pump may also need to be upped from a maxijet to something stronger.

I'm by no means an expert on the subject though, I'm just trying this out for the first time just to try to figure it all out too!

Delphinus · #7 12-04-2006, 05:43 AM

Day 6 Readings:

Tank pH - 8.2
Tank NO3 - 75ppm (Salifert)

Stage 1 effluent pH - 7.3
Stage 2 effluent pH - 7.6

Stage 2 effluent NO3 - 50ppm (Salifert)

Just to eliminate "testing error" (since I only did one sample for each reading above) I'll test NO3 again tomorrow using a different test kit. The original readings I took, were done with an Elos NO3 test kit, so that's what I'll use again tomorrow to see if I can confirm the apparent reduction already at this point.

Anyhow this is interesting stuff. Just under a week and the effluent coming out of the reactor appears to have a lower nitrate value than the inflow. The second stage, for buffering the low pH output of stage 1, does appear to have some function although not as profound as one might like (0.3 difference? better than nothing I suppose). Really is there a difference between dumping 7.3 into your tank versus 7.6? The drip rate is about 1 drop per 1-to-2 seconds so it is a very slow throughput.