Sulfur Denitrator with ORP Probe (Apex)... HOW and WHY

[Dj City]

Hello,
I have an AquaMaxx TS-1 Sulfur Denitrator. I have not hooked it up yet but I have been reading that it's a good idea to use an ORP Probe in the Denitrator.

My Questions are...

I have the ORP Probe that came with my Apex. It's monitoring the tank. Should I purchase another for the Denitrator?
How would this be helpful?
How is it read in Apex Fusion?
I've read that values or something needs to be changed. Changed to what and why?
What else do I need to know about ORP with the Denitrator?
What do I need to know about the Denitrator in general?

I am hoping to have the Denitrator online by next week to start it's cycle. Your answers will let me decide how to proceed.

Thank you in advance.

 

[LouieP]

Ive ran a Denitrator and never used orp to monitor the Denitrator. Orp is needed if you plan on running ozone.

 

[Dj City]

Bump

 

[garbled]

The point of monitoring ORP on a sulphur denitrator, is that you want a negative ORP in a specific range. (It's been a long time since I did this, so I no longer remember the numbers). Basically, above the range, and the water has too much oxygen, and you won't get the anoxic bacteria that de-nitrifies. Too far below the range, and it goes completely without oxygen, and you form hydrogen sulfide.

The problem with the Apex here, is that they set the allowable range for the ORP meter to 0-500 or something, so it cannot read a negative ORP value. So the trick, and again, I don't remember the math here, is that you register the ORP probe as a pH probe, and then do a bunch of math to figure out what the converted number is in pH.

It's a complete PITA, and it infuriates me that Neptune still hasn't fixed this, as people have been complaining about it since 2013.

 

[garbled]

Oh, and to add, you monitor the ORP inside the reactor. If your tank has negative ORP you have an actual problem.

 

[Dj City]

Thank you.
I have the Aquamaxx TS1. It has an orp port.

If I reverse the polarity of the probe, will Apex read the negative reading in a way that makes sense?

Also, would this work to reverse the polarity?

 

[scuzy]

Mine reads orp in positive value once reversed. But I had to manual splice the wires. Those connectors are really reversing it.

 

[garbled]

Wow. Wish they made those (or I knew about them) back when I ran a sulfur reactor...

I was digging through my old posts on RC when I ran the reactor, and it looks like I was tuning it for -170mv. I seem to recall having decent luck there.

Worth noting. The reason I gave up on the whole thing is that the stupid bacteria like to grow out of control, and when they do, they clog the unit. Once that happens, the flow slows down drastically, and you start making H2S. I had two bad episodes where it started spitting out H2S, and just never got the thing under control really, and one incident almost killed my puffer. That is when I finally tore it off the tank.

I ran it for about 1.5 years, constantly fiddling it. So much work, but I suspect with modern controllable flow devices and one of those probe reversers, you might be able to run one. For me though, nope. None of that.

 

[Bill Febel]

Once the Apex is reversed and setup, will in turn on, and off, the flow to the nitrator at a set ORP value?