AquaMaxx Sulfur Denitrator TS-1

[stephanjupillat]

Slow your drip down and let it sit for a week before increasing. 1 drop per second to start. After a week 2 drops per second.

I wouldn't feed it anything. You will just suffer die off when you are not supplying additional nitrates.

Yeah I was going to say same thing. Drop it even lower if you want. a drop every 2 seconds. That’s what I started with for 2 weeks. Think I did 1 drop a second after 2 weeks. This is a slow process that you really can’t speed up. Test nitrite after a week, then every couple days after. You will see it spike, then go down slowly. Once it’s 0 then start testing for nitrates. This will take a long time

 

[stephanjupillat]

If you are inpatient then a sulfur denitrator is not for you. If you want more instant results then carbon dose the DT

 

[sczlars]

also really watch your Alkalinity. Even with the reactor media in mine, it still lowers it.

 

[jasonrusso]

I’m still not seeing any changes in my effluent. Zero Nitrite, Nitrates same level as the display. Drip is about one to three drops per second. I’m an impatient person. I’m wondering if I so should attempt to seed with a product that contains heterotrophic bacteria such as Microbacter Clean? I’m not looking for overnight results but I am looking for indications of progress. Time is money, so I’m happy to spend cash to increase success and decrease the time needed for results. Any thoughts on which products to add and if I should add them directly to the reactor?

You may have picked the wrong method if after 2 days you are ready to give up. It takes weeks to a month to get going, but it is worth it. I brought a 220G tank from 200+ ppm to 20 in 4 months. Now it's under 10.

 

[kboogie]

Slow your drip down and let it sit for a week before increasing. 1 drop per second to start. After a week 2 drops per second.

I wouldn't feed it anything. You will just suffer die off when you are not supplying additional nitrates.

Got it. I'll slow it down more. Thank you for the tip.

 

[kboogie]

also really watch your Alkalinity. Even with the reactor media in mine, it still lowers it.

I run a FOWLR so I'm not overly concerned with Alkalinity other than what is needed to keep the pH from getting dangerously low.

 

[kboogie]

DELETED WRONG REPLY TO

 

[kboogie]

If you are inpatient then a sulfur denitrator is not for you. If you want more instant results then carbon dose the DT

I believe you are misinterpreting the point I want to get across because I am not adequately communicating. My point was if there are ways to speed up the process but people don't do them because they want to avoid additional expense, I'm OK with the additional expense because time is money. For example, two years ago I used the process I used to use back in the day of Fritz (MB XLM) to cycle my aquarium in a few days versus weeks. It cost more money but it was worth it to save time. If there was a similar process available, I don't mind spending $20, $40, $60, or $100 to gain that time.

There are many people who have a "penny wise pound foolish" approach when it comes to this hobby where they would rather put in two weeks of daily work to achieve the same result which can happen in one day if they spent $20 extra. I can be patient if that is truly what is required. I remember reading in another detailed thread about seeding with a combination of MB7 and MB Clean but I didn't bookmark the thread to go back and get the low-level details and the pitfall.

I do appreciate your feedback.

 

[stephanjupillat]

I believe you are misinterpreting the point I want to get across because I am not adequately communicating. My point was if there are ways to speed up the process but people don't do them because they want to avoid additional expense, I'm OK with the additional expense because time is money. For example, two years ago I used the process I used to use back in the day of Fritz (MB XLM) to cycle my aquarium in a few days versus weeks. It cost more money but it was worth it to save time. If there was a similar process available, I don't mind spending $20, $40, $60, or $100 to gain that time.

There are many people who have a "penny wise pound foolish" approach when it comes to this hobby where they would rather put in two weeks of daily work to achieve the same result which can happen in one day if they spent $20 extra. I can be patient if that is truly what is required. I remember reading in another detailed thread about seeding with a combination of MB7 and MB Clean but I didn't bookmark the thread to go back and get the low-level details and the pitfall.

I do appreciate your feedback.

I can tell you that it probably won’t hurt adding more bacterial but I don’t see it really helping. The reason why it takes weeks just to start with very slow drips is because all the regular bacteria need to consume all the oxygen in the reactor. Then the nitrate eating bacteria start growing. Hence the nitrite spike. I’m not cheap either and understand that sometimes it’s worth spending more money to make things happen quicker, but for this type of filter imo it may not work. I could be wrong and I honestly don’t see the harm in seeding it, or throwing in a little carbon like vinegar or nopox in there to try speeding it up. However out of everything I’ve read about these reactors, and instructions given by the manufacturers, none of them said seeding it or using carbon would speed it up. Good luck and let us know progress over next couple months.

 

[jasonrusso]

I run a FOWLR so I'm not overly concerned with Alkalinity other than what is needed to keep the pH from getting dangerously low.

You need to dose alk. The reactor won't work properly if alk gets too low.

 

[kboogie]

I can tell you that it probably won’t hurt adding more bacterial but I don’t see it really helping. The reason why it takes weeks just to start with very slow drips is because all the regular bacteria need to consume all the oxygen in the reactor. Then the nitrate eating bacteria start growing. Hence the nitrite spike. I’m not cheap either and understand that sometimes it’s worth spending more money to make things happen quicker, but for this type of filter imo it may not work. I could be wrong and I honestly don’t see the harm in seeding it, or throwing in a little carbon like vinegar or nopox in there to try speeding it up. However out of everything I’ve read about these reactors, and instructions given by the manufacturers, none of them said seeding it or using carbon would speed it up. Good luck and let us know progress over next couple months.

Thank you for the info. I’ll probably dose something. I’ll also switch to weekly testing.

 

[kboogie]

You need to dose alk. The reactor won't work properly if alk gets too low.

Thank you for the clarity. I’ll probably do Kalkwasser on a timer.

 

[stephanjupillat]

Thank you for the clarity. I’ll probably do Kalkwasser on a timer.

That won't work. Kalk has calcium. You would need to dose only alk, not calcium. If you dose kalk your calcium will keep climbing. The problem with sulfur denitrators is you need to dose a regular 2 part to make sure your calcium levels are correct, for those of us growing coral that is. You don't need to do that if you do not have any stony coral. But we also need to dose additional alk for this type of reactor.

 

[sczlars]

^^ this. I’ve just for now been dosing the alk portion on 2-part to keep it from dropping badly.

 

[kboogie]

That won't work. Kalk has calcium. You would need to dose only alk, not calcium. If you dose kalk your calcium will keep climbing. The problem with sulfur denitrators is you need to dose a regular 2 part to make sure your calcium levels are correct, for those of us growing coral that is. You don't need to do that if you do not have any stony coral. But we also need to dose additional alk for this type of reactor.

OK. Alk it is.

 

[jasonrusso]

I believe you are misinterpreting the point I want to get across because I am not adequately communicating. My point was if there are ways to speed up the process but people don't do them because they want to avoid additional expense, I'm OK with the additional expense because time is money. For example, two years ago I used the process I used to use back in the day of Fritz (MB XLM) to cycle my aquarium in a few days versus weeks. It cost more money but it was worth it to save time. If there was a similar process available, I don't mind spending $20, $40, $60, or $100 to gain that time.

There are many people who have a "penny wise pound foolish" approach when it comes to this hobby where they would rather put in two weeks of daily work to achieve the same result which can happen in one day if they spent $20 extra. I can be patient if that is truly what is required. I remember reading in another detailed thread about seeding with a combination of MB7 and MB Clean but I didn't bookmark the thread to go back and get the low-level details and the pitfall.

I do appreciate your feedback.

Thank you for the clarity. I’ll probably do Kalkwasser on a timer.

I just dose the BRS Soda Ash and mix it on a dosing container

 

[kboogie]

I just dose the BRS Soda Ash and mix it on a dosing container

I like this.

 

[kboogie]

I’m happy to report progress with my TS-3! I tested my effluent today with my Hanna Checker. My Effluent was 26PPM and my DT was 53.6!!! Given Effluent matched the tank on Wednesday this is the type of progress I wanted to see.

I appreciate everyone baring with me through this process. I plan on testing again Sunday and if the effluent is near zero I will bump up the flow rate from 1 - 3 drops per second to 6 to 9 drops per second.

 

[jasonrusso]

I’m happy to report progress with my TS-3! I tested my effluent today with my Hanna Checker. My Effluent was 26PPM and my DT was 53.6!!! Given Effluent matched the tank on Wednesday this is the type of progress I wanted to see.

I appreciate everyone baring with me through this process. I plan on testing again Sunday and if the effluent is near zero I will bump up the flow rate from 1 - 3 drops per second to 6 to 9 drops per second.

Are you measuring any nitrite? If you measure any nitrites it will show up as nitrate

 

[stephanjupillat]

You need to test for nitrites first. You will see a spike, like off the charts. Some people even dump the effluent into another bucket as no one wants that much nitrite in your tank. All depends on your tank size but I dumped mine.

You keep the reactor as it is until there are 0 nitrites. When they are 0, then can you test for nitrates. And only when you see nitrates dropping out of the effluent can you increase the flow. Like 1 drop to 2 drops per second for a week or two, then 3 drops for another week or two.

This is how to properly set up a denitrator correctly. How you set up yours is up to you but we are just trying to give advise as there are a lot of reefers who are unable to get positive result with them, or have delayed results by trying to speed up the process.

I'm at the point where I'm trying to raise my nitrates by increasing the flow to 100ml per minute and it still eats all the nitrates. It's insane. I'm going to try bringing it down to 40ml per minute but at that low of a setting I get slight sulfur smell.

They are finicky reactors but work better than any other method for lowering nitrates.