Sulphur Bio denitrator

I have built 3 of them and they run great. I used BRS reactors and modified them to work.

On your design I only see one thing I would change. The inlet line should go to the input side of the pump and not the output side as you show. Putting it on the output side will produce some pressure in the line that will effect flow into the reactor. Putting it on the input side will actually allow the pump to help draw the water into the reactor.

I also did not find it necessary to have the vent line. All of the off gassing exits the output tube just fine in my design. I simply control the flow through on the input side only and that way any gasses are free to exit unrestricted from the effluent line.

Watch Your PH and Alk while you are running it and I only run them until the nitrates are reduced and then I shut them down to keep from over cleaning the water and starving the reactor which will produce large amounts of rotten egg gas. I would recommend running slightly less sulfur than is called for so that you don't starve it.

Hope that helps. Krazie

Thanks Krazie. I will make that adjustment. Chad, I'm not exactly sure on cost yet. The media I have coming cost less than $60. The reactor I got used in a trade. The pump I had sitting around, not really sure where it came from. The tubing and connections all all I have left to buy.

Hey, so I've been getting edumacated on this too. ;)

I'm reading that the amount of sulfur media used should be 0.6% times the amount of tank water volume. Is that what you all use/plan to use?

Krazie, what's the second RO line for?

That is the amount of sulphur I have read to use as well.  I am going to do that, then fill the rest of the reactor space with course aragonite media.   For me I think I have around 180 gallons or so total water volume.  The math is .006 x 180 = 1.08 liters of sulphur.

The other things you mentioned I know nothing about.  I think I read somewhere (don't ask me where) not to mix bio pellets or similiar with the sulphur.  If more surface area was/is needed, then use more sulphur.

What what I know, as long as you do something to adjust the ph after it leaves the sulphur media, that is all that matters. 

I will post more as I build mine, and how it works/ turns out.

DMower wrote: One should be the input from the tank, the other will be the return.  The pump just circulates the water in a loop through the reactor.

Ignore me on that one...that was one of my exhausted moments...

I plan to run long term and continuously.  What media amount is recommended for that?

Oh forgot to address the bio media. Most bio media is designed for an aerobic environment. Sulfur reactors work in an anaerobic environment. Not sure what the result would be in that scenario.

Surface area is surface area. I'm not sure why it would matter whether it was sulfur or biomedia but since the bacteria consume sulfur in the process of converting the nitrates then doesn't it make more sense that they be on sulfur and not a media that does not aid them in their work? Don't know I may need to think on that one some more.

Krazie4Acans wrote: Surface area is surface area. I'm not sure why it would matter whether it was sulfur or biomedia but since the bacteria consume sulfur in the process of converting the nitrates then doesn't it make more sense that they be on sulfur and not a media that does not aid them in their work? Don't know I may need to think on that one some more.

From the reading I was doing, the bacteria involved do not constantly feed. Granted, they don't do much else (reproduce and expel waste), but they don't necessarily live 100% on their food source. Biomedia has extremely high surface area for the volume. For instance, I've seen some 1 square inch pieces that have >250 square feet of surface area. Compare that to the same volume of sulfur pellets, and they probably only have a combined surface area of a few square inches. So, I'm only talking of adding a couple of tiny biomedia pieces throughout the sulfur. But I think theoretically it should increase the bacteria population as long as sulfur and nitrates aren't limited.    

Maybe, but there's not an exact science to it anyway. Depends on the nitrate content of the water, flow rate, bacteria population, etc. That's why testing is a huge part of it all.

A few pieces of biomedia isn't a lot when we're talking about a gallon of sulfur in my case. If the theory works, maybe I'd only need half a gallon of sulfur, which means a smaller reactor. Or maybe the theory is bunk.