Sulfur Nitrate Reactors

revhtree · May 14, 2012

Sulfur Nitrate Reactors was a topic suggested by one of our FB members. What do you know about them and what experience can you share?

fraggingfish · May 14, 2012

I'm currently using traditional Sulfur, Phosban and Carbon instead of the new style everyone refers to as Bio Pellets.

Sulfur is great to remove nitrates, it has a funky smell to it but lasts a very long time.
The media replacement is very inexpensive and it will need about 6-8 months before it needs to be replaced.
The sulfur should stay nice and yellow, otherwise, if you see dark or black areas, then there isn't sufficient flow traveling through and it'll need a definite replacement.

It may take 3 days to a week for the bacteria to fully cycle through before it becomes effective.

I've been using it for over 3 years and haven't had any issues with it.
Less frequent water changes, great polyp extension, healthy fish.

I believe the cost of a gallon container is around 20 bucks, lasts you a very long time depending on the volume of your tank.

Aquaph8 · May 15, 2012

Always wanted one of these but never knew too much about them. Bump for more info.

robert · May 15, 2012

I have been running a DIY sulphur denitrator for a few years. I love it. There are a lot of misconceptions about this form of denitrator but in reality, its a remote deep sand bed made more efficient by the addition of elemental sulphur. Nothing more.

While its very efficient at removing nitrates, whats not well know is that a properly built sulphur denitrator is also capable of phosphate removal. Unfortunately none of the commercial versions which I have seen are configured correctly for phosphate removal and they typically are run too slowly.

They do not produce sulphides unless run incorrectly (but then so will bio-pellets and everything else if allowed to foul),

They don't require feeding. Once every 12-18 months I add a couple cups of sulphur, a couple cups of calcium reactor media (coral chunks) and flush the sediment.
They add calcium/magnesium and some trace minerals back to the water.
They do consume alkalinity. They can take your alk to a six, below which they cease to function.
They add no turbity to the water like carbon dosing can as there is no added bacteria in the water column - they don't require skimming to work.