Progress in My Aquarium Engineering Sulfur Denitrifier

justonwo · Oct 18, 2016

Hmmm . . . I'm having a hard time getting past the 80-100 drops per minute stage. The flow typically decreases about 10 drops/min every day, so I find myself having to open the needle valve more just to keep the flow steady. The effluent nitrate ranges between 0 and 2 ppm, while my tank nitrate is around 16 ppm.

I would have thought ramp up would be easier than it is. I'm curious to hear from others who have gone through the startup process. What did you find when you were starting up your sulfur reactor?

justonwo · Oct 22, 2016

Ok, so I'm off by a large margin on my flow rate. Bill said to start at 1-2 drops per MINUTE, not per SECOND. So I haven't built up nearly enough reduction potential to keep the reactor stable. I am also going to get an ORP meter to make my life much easier. This explains a lot!

justonwo · Oct 24, 2016

In the meantime, I have the flow dialed way back and I'm getting a strong H2S odor, so clearly I've gone too far in the other direction. ORP meter arrives tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be off to the races.

justonwo · Oct 27, 2016

I installed the ORP meter today and am currently running with an ORP of -230 mV. I will adjust the flow to keep the ORP below -50 mV, per Bill's recommendation. This will be much easier than monitoring nitrate levels every day.

Daniel@R2R · Oct 28, 2016

How's it working for you with adding the ORP meter? Still too soon to know?

justonwo · Oct 31, 2016

mdbannister said:
How's it working for you with adding the ORP meter? Still too soon to know?

It's still too early to know. The flow rate is definitely much lower than it was before. Maybe it takes a long while to build up a robust bacteria colony, but I'm still down in the few drops per minute range. It certainly makes monitoring the system much easier.

justonwo · Nov 13, 2016

It's been a couple of weeks, and I've gotten the flow up to about 1 drop per minute with an ORP reading of about -60 mV. My assumption was that the ORP would decrease over time with a constant flow rate, thus enabling me to move to a higher flow rate. I haven't really seen it drop. Not sure what to do next.

greg 45 · Nov 13, 2016

I would contact Bill . It takes some time for the bacteria to build in the unit. What I don't understand is you state the flow rate changes . How are you feeding the reactor. I use a parasitic pump. Ask Bill what to feed it with so your flow rate doesn't change . The flow rate is important in stat up and running the unit steady flow is important . Also I had very poor readings with the api test kits I was chasing a ghost. Purchase a good kit like salifert. Hope this helps.

justonwo · Nov 13, 2016

I'm feeding the reactor with a normal pump and adjusting flow at the entrance using the needle valve that's part of the unit. The flow rate was initially not holding steady because (I'm guessing) of gas trapped in the system. Now it seems to hold steady at a specific needle valve adjustment.

I have a pretty high quality Red Sea nitrate kit, so I don't think I'm chasing my tail on nitrates. Besides, I'm mostly using the ORP meter as a guide now.

I have been in communication with Bill, but he can be hard to get ahold of.

justonwo · Nov 14, 2016

The effluent nitrates are at 0 presently, with the flow rate around 1 drop per second. Bill said to let the flow hold steady for a while and wait for the ORP reading to come down to about -75 mV before opening the valve further.