New sulfur denitrator working great!

SeaDweller · Feb 10, 2019

Finally got ZERO NO3 out of the effluent! But also, I have to mention my NO3 was probably 200+. I did three 120 gallon water changes in about 1.5 weeks. Finally reading between 25 to 37.5 ppm NO3 on salifert. A few days ago my effluent was still registering super high super fast, but admittedly it could have been nitrite messing up the readings. Today, the effluent was clear and I just upped the drop rate to 2-3 per second. It took about a full month to break in.

Dr. Reef · Feb 11, 2019

good. now its cycled and running fine. i strongly suggest that keep upping the drip rate over time as slow moving water inside the reactor is going to cause hydrogen sulfide gas which in numbers can be very dangerous. i would also open the second release outlet just a hair so you are getting a drop or 2 every 10-15 sec to release any gas/air buildup.. eventually your drip rate will be a steady stream over months. good luck

SeaDweller · Feb 11, 2019

Dr. Reef said:
good. now its cycled and running fine. i strongly suggest that keep upping the drip rate over time as slow moving water inside the reactor is going to cause hydrogen sulfide gas which in numbers can be very dangerous. i would also open the second release outlet just a hair so you are getting a drop or 2 every 10-15 sec to release any gas/air buildup.. eventually your drip rate will be a steady stream over months. good luck

My NO3 only became an issue when my tank inadvertently became a fish only tank. And laziness and overfeeding probably. When I had it jam packed with corals I couldn't keep NO3 up. Glad all is back on track.

What second release valve are you talking about? I do see a bunch of air bubbles I haven't seen before which I believe is N2 gas.

Dr. Reef · Feb 11, 2019

What reactor are you using?
I have koralline sulfur reactor and on top lid it has 2 outlets.
1 for your flow/drip rate
2 for gas buildup

Most likely the bubble you see on top are either regular air or HS gas. As bacteria takes up sulfur and nitrate for fuel along with depleting oxygen, hydrogen is released which reacts with sulfur to produce HS gas.

Fudsey · Feb 11, 2019

If you have the aquamaxx there is a port for a orp probe, don't remove this to let the gas out while it's running. You'll have water everywhere

SeaDweller · Feb 12, 2019

Fudsey said:
If you have the aquamaxx there is a port for a orp probe, don't remove this to let the gas out while it's running. You'll have water everywhere

That's the only one I see too. I am running the aquamaxx, and I see this blue "T" shaped thing that I don't know what it's used for?

Anyway, does the gas have to be removed? If I open up the ORP port, should I turn the recirc pump off and cut off the feed? Is it even necessary?

Dr. Reef · Feb 12, 2019

overtime if gas builds up too much pressure your ORP ports or some joints may give/crack. Even if they dont, the back pressure eventually will weaken the recir-pump

SeaDweller · Feb 12, 2019

So this is the blue thing I'm talking about. This is a borrowed pic from another thread, and this member swapped the position of his: mine is in the middle where his effluent tube is now-but is this a bubble release port? The blue T? I'm assuming I have to stop the recirc and cut off flow if I am to open this right?

Does that mess up the anaerobic conditions? What if I just tip the reactor to get the air to go out thru the effluent drain?

Dr. Reef · Feb 12, 2019

Dr. Reef · Feb 12, 2019

From the manual pic online this is what i think is the ports used for.

SeaDweller · Feb 12, 2019

Dr. Reef said:
From the manual pic online this is what i think is the ports used for.

Yep. The picture I posted was another member relocating those two things to avoid that "air vortex" in the center of the reactor but I found it goes away on its own with this reactor with time. He swapped them because he thought it worked better. I just don't know if that little blue plug is an air escape valve or what- because the diagram and manual don't mention anything about it. I'd have to remove it to release any air. Thanks for looking things up dr reef.

Fudsey · Feb 12, 2019

That top looks more like the top from their calcium reactor. I don't have that extra port in the middle. Mine looks like the diagram @Dr. Reef posted

Edited for port count.

Fudsey · Feb 12, 2019

And just for info, I ran my TS-3 for about 9 months and never had to release any pressure build up. It naturally made it's way out the outlet tube.

SeaDweller · Feb 12, 2019

Fudsey said:
That top looks more like the top from their calcium reactor. I don't have that extra port in the middle. Mine looks like the diagram @Dr. Reef posted

Edited for port count.

I see this company reuses a lot of designs for "different" reactors. Well, looks like I could use it for calcium later if I needed to.

Fudsey said:
And just for info, I ran my TS-3 for about 9 months and never had to release any pressure build up. It naturally made it's way out the outlet tube.

I find that it has done that too. Mine has produced a lot more bubbles recently though. Not sure what to make of it if it's the byproduct of the reaction or if O2 somehow made it into the system, but if the latter were true, wouldn't the time clock be reset to 0 and I wouldn't have zero NO3 effluent coming out?

Dr. Reef · Feb 12, 2019

A little O2 will not hurt the cycle inside the reactor. In fact I have opened the reactor, cleaned the media in saltwater then put it back along with additional sulfur to top off with no negative effects.
Reminder: reactors been running on my tanks for over 7-9 yrs and have always kept nitrates absolute 0. So opening and adding sulfur may have lost the bacteria but due to nitrates being 0, maybe the reactor caught up just in time before nitrates could build back up.

SeaDweller · Feb 21, 2019

Can someone help me? So when I up my effluent drip rate to produce 1-2 more drops, let’s say, per second, the next day I go to test it, my NO3 kit from salifert reads super bright pink almost immediately, which I assume is NITRITE interfering with the test. So does this mean the conversion inside the reactor is no longer complete, and this is too high of a flow rate? Or do I have to leave it going a few more days and then test it? Because I have it at about 11ml/min still and that only processes 4.18 gallons of water a day.

Am I testing too soon after changing the flow rate?

skr791346 · Feb 26, 2019

Anyone have any issues with mulm build up on their Aquamaxx reactors? Nitrate is 0 coming out even at full stream but I can't seem to keep the ORP at -174 to -203 for longer than a month. Mulm builds up, restricting flow and ORP shoots up to -572 and I keep having to take the reactor apart, rinse media of bacteria build up to have the same issue again soon after about a month.

SeaDweller · Feb 26, 2019

skr791346 said:
Anyone have any issues with mulm build up on their Aquamaxx reactors? Nitrate is 0 coming out even at full stream but I can't seem to keep the ORP at -174 to -203 for longer than a month. Mulm builds up, restricting flow and ORP shoots up to -572 and I keep having to take the reactor apart, rinse media of bacteria build up to have the same issue again soon after about a month.