New sulfur denitrator working great!

[LobsterOfJustice]

Yeah if the reactor is dropping from 80 to 5 that is pretty good, the reactor is definitely "working". I would give it time to process the tank water. If the tank nitrate level doesn't drop over the next 2 weeks then the reactor is undersized for the amount of nutrients you are adding.

 

[renato120]

Yeah if the reactor is dropping from 80 to 5 that is pretty good, the reactor is definitely "working". I would give it time to process the tank water. If the tank nitrate level doesn't drop over the next 2 weeks then the reactor is undersized for the amount of nutrients you are adding.

I hope the reactor is big enough. It says up to 200g. I dont have more than 150g water in the system. I just checked again. The water coming out from the reactor reads 5.0
The tank is 80ppm.
I will Wait another few weeks. Hope it will change

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do you know the actual volume flow per minute?

Drop sizes vary, but if we assume 20 drops per mL, you are denitrifying roughly 9 ml per minute, or 3.4 gallons per day.

It going to take a long time (if ever) to bring down nitrate that way (IMO) in a 200 gallon system.

You may actually want to try increasing the flow.

 

[renato120]

Do you know the actual volume flow per minute?

Drop sizes vary, but if we assume 20 drops per mL, you are denitrifying roughly 9 ml per minute, or 3.4 gallons per day.

It going to take a long time (if ever) to bring down nitrate that way (IMO) in a 200 gallon system.

You may actually want to try increasing the flow.

I dont know the volume flow per Minute
I can try doing that! Increasing the flow.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I picked my words carefully in my previous post when I said your reactor might be undersized "for the amount of nutrients you are adding" and not "for your size tank". I think it's reasonable to expect the reactor to drop those nitrates, but just remember your reactor is also fighting against any nutrients you are adding. If you add 20ppm a week from feeding, the reactor can remove 20ppm a week before you even notice any movement in the tanks nitrate level, if that makes sense.

 

[renato120]

If I increase the flow like you mention. To drop 50ml per minute.
0 nitrates will come out of the reactor.
I just tried that.
With slower drips it will increase the nitrates coming out of the reactor.
@Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If I increase the flow like you mention. To drop 50ml per minute.
0 nitrates will come out of the reactor.
I just tried that.
With slower drips it will increase the nitrates coming out of the reactor.
@Randy Holmes-Farley

If higher flow leads to nitrates still being pretty low (whether zero or not), that's the way to go. If you didn't wait long, however, you may still be flushing out low nitrate water that was made at low flow.

I can't see why lower flow would lead to more nitrate. That might be a testing issue of some sort. Bear in mind that such testing can be problematic. Some nitrite can show as a lot of nitrate, for example, with some nitrate kits.

 

[renato120]

If higher flow leads to nitrates still being pretty low (whether zero or not), that's the way to go. If you didn't wait long, however, you may still be flushing out low nitrate water that was made at low flow.

I can't see why lower flow would lead to more nitrate. That might be a testing issue of some sort. Bear in mind that such testing can be problematic. Some nitrite can show as a lot of nitrate, for example, with some nitrate kits.

It could be a test issue. I checked with api test kit, and red sea pro. Both now reading zero after I increased

 

[lawise]

My denitrator has been running now for seven weeks I'm going from about 35 parts per million to about 5 parts per million out of my denitrator at one drop per second, wow if yours is going from 80 parts per million to 5, leave it alone that's awesome!!![emoji106]

 

[lawise]

The ultimate goal of the denitrator is to have 0 parts per million out of the effluent whatever that drip rate Maybe but any changes made in your drip rate you have to give days to check your results because it takes awhile to process the change, you can't just change your drip rate and then check the effluent right away because all the water in the denitrator didn't have a chance to adjust to that new drip rate.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Denirator's NO3 processing rate should be better than your NO3 production rate (at the same time frame) otherwise your nutrients will not drop. Your effluent drip rate (with zero NO3 or at least lower than display) is crucial as your success in nutrients export depends on it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It could be a test issue. I checked with api test kit, and red sea pro. Both now reading zero after I increased

How high is the flow now? Might want to raise it again, depending on what portion of the tank volume you run through each day. A small amount of zero nitrate water is not nearly as useful as a much larger amount of "reduced" nitrate water.

 

[renato120]

How high is the flow now? Might want to raise it again, depending on what portion of the tank volume you run through each day. A small amount of zero nitrate water is not nearly as useful as a much larger amount of "reduced" nitrate water.

I checked last night and the effluent water is reading 20ppm.
Tank is reading 40ppm now.
Speeding the flow in the reactor lowered my nitrates to 40ppm.
Its dripping much more than 3/sec.
Im going to leave it like this for a couple more days and after that I will lower the drip and see if it will reduce more nitrates.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

The aquamaxx that I purchased does have a small pre-filter on it.

So I have an Aquamaxx calcium reactor I bought recently. It looks identical to this. Can I use the calcium reactor as both?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So I have an Aquamaxx calcium reactor I bought recently. It looks identical to this. Can I use the calcium reactor as both?

At the same time? Using CO2? Sounds very tricky to adequately optimize two unrelated processes at once with the few controls available.

The reason some incorporate CaCO3 media is to try to offset the low pH/low alkalinity of the produced water from a sulfur denitrator, not to try to also use it to supplement calcium and alkalinity.

 

[lawise]

So I have an Aquamaxx calcium reactor I bought recently. It looks identical to this. Can I use the calcium reactor as both?

You may want to call aquamaxx on that but I know they told me they use the same tops for both the denitrator and the calcium reactor so probably you can use it for either

 

[LouieP]

After seen this thread Im about to buy the denitrator. Im tired of high nitrates. I been doing
Two 40g water changes weekly. No3 is between 80 and 40. 80 if I dont do 2 water changes in a week. Once I do it drops to 40. I have a 120g with ann eel and 12 fishes. Including two tangs and a foxface. My anthias need to be fed daily as well.

@renato120 Im not sure if someone already replied to your comment but remember for each 10% water change you will only reduce your NO3 by 10% so 40gal waer change will reduce your NO3 by approx 26ppm. Water changes are a lot of work for minimal change.

 

[LouieP]

Also about to pull the trigger.

From the different manufacturers (I know of GEO, korallin and aquamaxx), is there any that is a clear winner?

When there is an event that releases H2S and you smell the rotten eggs, does that smell stink up the whole tank (and living room) or is it contained to the denitrator area? In my case, I'll have it in a fish room that's separate from the main tank and since it's a gas, I'd assume that it would stay in the fish room and not be noticeable in the living room.

Its more like the entire house. I had one on my tank which is in my office and I stuck out the entire office for a day. My office is on the 2nd floor with no windows. Lets say the other people in my office werent happy! I cant stop laughing as I type this. I have the GEO denitrator which I liked but it didnt take care of my PO3 problem so I took it offline so now I use an ATS.

As long as you have flow through (effluent) the reactor you should be good. When you NO3 read zero you can have a steady stream for your effluent. If you turn off your effluent or recirculate pump for a day thats when you will get the smell.

@Jongalt26 @lawise

The aqua lift pump is not reliable enough. Because the diaphragms have to be replaced you are better offer haveing a little maxijet as a feed pump then a aqua lift pump. Also most doser wont be able to keep the effluent at a high enough rate so your best bet is a pump. I ran 1 maxijet for both my denitrator & CaRx but GEO's Reef did recommend that they have a separate pump for each. I had a steady stream coming out of my D-NO3 and it worked too good but did nothing for my PO3.

@ReeferBud I dont think you will need worry about your ORP & solenoid for your denitrator. I never had a problem with my ORP, why do you think you will have a problem?

 

[ReeferBud]

@LouieP : my thought process is that if the flow through the reactor is reduced, which can generate H2S, doesn't that result in a low ORP? And if it does, then I can monitor ORP and use a solenoid to automate shutting off of the reactor to avoid adding that water to the tank and stink up the house. I could then take the reactor to be cleaned outside.

Is this logic flawed? Thanks!

 

[2una]

Is this logic flawed? Thanks!

I use 2
1 for a controller - that turns on/off a pump to inject more flow at a set mv/orp value (my primary flow comes from circ pump suction pulling in a little new water)
2nd - apex probe - sends out alert if mv goes to higher than normal danger area (also acts as a backup for probe lies)