Sulfur nitrate reactors

[greg 45]

Jeremy Gosnell it is nice to see other using different means to lower nitrates. This was the last one that I used and am still using. First I tried bio pellets they weren't to my licking to many pellets couldn't get flow correct clouded tank . Second I made my own version of the natureef design using methanol worked fantastic but a hassle to get dialed in dump schedule amount to dose in the chamber. Way too much work for me also too much testing. As many on here know I am running Aquarium Engineering products produced by Bill Wann. Bill and I had a conversation about purchasing a sulfur reactor. Told him what tried prior and here I am . This was the easiest and simple to set up and adjust, After it is done consuming the nitrated it will go after the phosphates. No guess work involved .

 

[charliethetuna88]

I run a koralin sulfer reactor .they def work .i ha e a ton of fish in my 300 gallon and threwout my 450 gallom system .a little tinkering but all and all they work pretty well ,..i would tell u that the bacteria in the reactor def use up /drop your all .it tooke forever to figure out y my calcium was over 550-600 and my alk was in the low 7s ...i was running a calcium reactor so all to cal should always be balanced .i was not adding any other forms of alk and cal at the time

 

[charliethetuna88]

After some reading i figured out that my alk was dropping due to the sulfer reactor .i then hand dosed alk and tuned down my calcium reactor .once my alk and cal came to a balanced point i then added a dosing pump to add the alk daily ...

 

[charliethetuna88]

Not sure if its the bacteria that drop the alk or if they actually use it

 

[greg 45]

Charlie never noticed that always had a calcium reactor on the system. Next conversation with Bill I will mention this to him and post a reply .

 

[charliethetuna88]

I was running the cal reactor ,i always run a cal reactor also ..so think of it as the cal reactor was putting out balanced alk to cal .the sulfer reactor was using just the alk ,not the calcium ,as the alk lowered the calcium wasnt getting used up at the same rate the alk was and started to rise as i would adjust the cal reactor to bring up the alk ..

 

[greg 45]

Sent a message to Bill Wann about alk lowering he has not seen or noticed this happening. Reason I asked him is I trust his judgment and I run his equipment. My only thought is that after or while the sufur was starting to kick in lowering nitrates the system was using the alk to grow , don't know your sysem.
Maybe we can get Boomer to chime in.

 

[charliethetuna88]

Yeah def man i would like to know y also i think if i remember right the info i got on y my alk was dropping and and cal was rising was from boomer but lets see if he chimes in

 

[charliethetuna88]

Could also be that the bacteria produce calcium from eating the sulfer maybe and its not that may alk is going down but calcium is going up ?