Sulfur denitrator experiment - Page 4

reeferaddict · #31 12-13-2006, 10:13 AM

My results took about a month to develop and have been very consistent since. Before I did the denitrator I battled hair algae and the sort for a year and a half. The tank now runs a tidy ZERO and that even with not getting to a water change in 6 weeks now.

The sulfur does need to colonize denitrifying bacteria in an anoxic environment. To do this I ran mine on a rubbermaid of 80 ppm tank water with a slow drip rate to begin with to promote the anoxic zone and gradually ramped it up to around the 5X media volume turnover per hour as stated in Delbeek and Sprung Vol 3 and waited to see my test water nitrates drop. I noticed a drop after about 3 weeks and after a month there was no nitrates left in the test water. During that time I had gotten the main system down to a reasonable 20 - 30 ppm. It took about 6 weeks on the main tank before my nitrates really dropped, but after 2 months there were ZERO which is where it's been ever since.

You need to keep an eye on the effluent rate, as I've had mine clog a couple of times and when you start up you get that wonderful rotten egg hydrogen sulfide stench, but even restarting it in the system doesn't release enough to be of concern to the inhabitants. I've seen nothing to compare to the nitrate elimination potential of this system. For the most part it's set and forget when implemented with a little research and common sense. Be patient - about all I can say is you may want to try increasing your effluent rate and see from there. I was dauted by mine at first - but it works beautifully!

Joe Reefer · #32 12-13-2006, 02:12 PM

Reefkeeping rule #7234 - Nothing good happens fast.

danny zubot · #33 12-13-2006, 02:43 PM

Quote:

bacteria pre-installed.

**Insert Bacteria Here**

Tony, why dont you do a nice sized water change, and then run the unit out of a rubbermaid. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Skimmerking · #34 12-13-2006, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Reefer

Reefingkeeping rule #7234 - Nothing good happens fast.

and more so when your married

Reefer Rob · #35 12-13-2006, 03:59 PM

Have you checked the calcium level out of the 2nd stage? In theory, with the sulfer producing acid, this may be a replacement for the CO2 bottle in a calcium reactor, or a least be of some value for calcium replenishment even if the goal isn't NO3 reduction.

Delphinus · #36 12-13-2006, 05:45 PM

Not yet. Randy Holmes-Farley did this article about sulfur denitrators where he showed the chemical reactions happening and demonstrated how the calcium and alkalinity, although there will be some, won't really be a significant source for the tank. However I'm sure it's still better than having nothing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by reeferaddict

gradually ramped it up to around the 5X media volume turnover per hour as stated in Delbeek and Sprung Vol 3

How did you ramp it up? I'm still running about one drop per 2 to 3 seconds. Could I start opening it up at this point?

I don't have vol3 yet. I dropped a pretty big hint to Santa though.

So ...

5x media volume. I'm using a 4" reactor and my media height is approx. 8.5".

So roughly PI * 2^2 * 8.5 (Pi * r^2, where r=2 because diameter is 4") = ~107 cubic inches

1 cubic inch = 16.387064 millilitres

Therefore 107 * 16.387064 = approx. 1750ml

1750ml * 5 = 8750ml/hour

8750 / 60 = approx. 145 ml/min

That seems pretty fast to me. Am I overlooking anything or should it really be opened up that fast?

I guess that's only about 6 seconds to fill a 15ml measuring spoon. A little more than twice what I run my calcium reactors at (I run mine at 60ml/min) so I guess it's maybe not that far off. Hmmm ... interesting.

Ok so the real question is how much time do I give myself to open up the reactor to that speed?

christyf5 · #37 12-13-2006, 06:37 PM

Arggh math! My eyes!!!!!

I say damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

Seriously though, that seems pretty fast, why not just try a fast drip for now, then ramp it up from there?

Psyire · #38 12-13-2006, 11:11 PM

I don't think you want to be increasing your drip rate...

You want a slow drip rate until you have enough bacteria to use up all the nitrate at that rate. Then you start increasing your drip rate slowly until you find the right rate for your current bioload. As your nitrate in the tank comes down you will further increase your drip rate until it is balanced at Zero nitrate in the tank, and zero coming from the reactor.

Psyire · #39 12-13-2006, 11:13 PM

2 weeks is too early to be jumping to conclusions and changing operation of your setup..

Delphinus · #40 12-14-2006, 05:48 AM

Be nice now. I'm not jumping to conclusions but I am questioning whether I should wait to see this thing help sort out an immediate situation I have right now.

3 months from now is practically March and that's a long way's away. Many things can happen in that timeframe.

As far as increasing the drip rate, I haven't. It doesn't make sense to me to start that until I see a NO3 reading on the output that's less than the input, because until then, there obviously isn't enough colonization to make the difference.