New Nitrate Removal Korallin Sulfur-Based BioDenitrator

[Psionicdragon]

Revive! Revive!

Lets get some more updates people!

[robersiere]

I have just installed a sulfur denitrator on my reef aquarium. Nitrates were reading 50 ppm and are now at 25 ppm. I converted my PM calcium reactor into a Nitrate reactor.
I have 2 lts of sulfur on a PM effluent chamber connected first and then I run the effluent through the calcium reactor filled with crushed coral (no CO2)
I had the system running at 2 lts per hour and after 10 days, the effluent was at 0 nitrates and 0 nitrites. On the 12th day I got the rotten smell of sulfurous hydrogen and increased the effluent rate to 4 lts x hour (2 lts per liter of sulfur)

[alannathanson]

I installed the Korallin denitrator two weeks ago. After one week the effluent was at 0 nitrates. The tank nitrates were off the scale before installation and now they're down to 30 and diminishing every day. I was doing about a 10% water change every 2 weeks to no avail.
The assembly instructions included with the reactor are not good but thanks to 64Ivy's pics on page 5 of this thread I had no problem setting it up. Thanks Ivy!
If I had an extra reactor I'd run the effluent thru crushed coral but instead I placed a filter bag of crushed coral under the drip. Tank pH is at 8.2. As an added measure I'm dripping Seachem Marine Buffer at about a liter every 2 days.
Thanks again for all the helpful advice in this thread.

[muzzy]

going to revive this thread again as ive just got myself a secondhand korallin 1501.

simple question, there was some talk early on in this thread about air pockets occuring at the top of the chamber, was there a definitive answer to curing this problem or is it something you just have to live with and open the tap to expel the gas every few days?

thanks
muzzy

[fingersdlp]

I put one on my fish only tank (now has corals as well). I had to bleed gas (air or nitorgen?) out with the top valve for about a week or so but then it stopped building up. It has been running now for many months and no air pockets.

I was doing weekly water changes to keep the nitrates around 40-60. It has taken the nitrates down less than 10 - last time I checked it was around 5 and I only do a water change now about every 2 -3 weeks. I have a puffer, tusk, hawkfish and a few others so I feed a lot. Highly recommend if you have a nitrate problem and don't want (or can't) cut back on feeding. My puffer accounts for at least half my bio load. Darn messy eater.

180 gallon tank with another 30 - 40 gallons in a RDSB and sump.

I adjust the drip rate about once a week to keep it consistant as it tends to slow down. I am using the not so good valves that it came with and probably should use a better valve for the drip rate control.

I have added some soft corals: Finger leather, xenia, zoo's, yellow colonial, pagoda, frog spawn, brain and even a couple of monti-cap frags that have really taken off. They all seem to be thriving so it does not appear to cause them any issues.

EDIT: I have the S-1502

Brian

[muzzy]

thanks for that.

one more question, did most people set one up with tank water going in and coming out as normal, 1 drip every few seconds, or did anyone actually try and get it up and running by just re-circulating the tank water in the chamber until the bacteria colonies were developed and then start feeding the water to the tank, thus stopping any nitrites getting into the tank?

[alannathanson]

I followed the instructions and started it with a very slow drip. I did the first nitrate test after about a week and the effluent was at 0. I noticed that if the drip was too fast the effluent nitrate creeps back up but goes back to zero very quickly when the drip rate was reduced.
Its been running for about 10 weeks now and I've had 2 instances of air forming in the chamber. I have the unit on a shelf about 2 1/2 feet lower than the tank and draining into the sump which is about 1 foot lower than the reactor. I don't know why the air formed and any assistance would be appreciated. It is not a major problem but I'd like to eliminate it completely.

[hahnmeister]

You need the effluent line to be kept above the level of the reactor or relative to the outlet, the reactor is in enough of a vacuum for air to form. Raise the outlet line (or lower the reactor) and you will be fine.

[alannathanson]

hahn: got it, thanks loads.

[davy182]

if anyone is interested in one that brings your nitrates to zero in three days i have them availble. Davy182@gmail.com. It is a sulphur denitrator.

[davy182]

if anyone is interested in one that brings your nitrates to zero in three days i have them availble. Davy182@gmail.com. It is a sulphur denitrator.

[muzzy]

umm, so is the korallin one being discussed here, so i dont see how any other sulphur denitrator can reduce nitrates from say 50ppm like mine to zero in 3 days, the bacteria colonies have to develop over time, so your claims are likely tosh!

even if it was possible, to drop nitrates from 50 to zero in 3 days would shock the whole system and likely cause more harm than good.

[VP]

After reading this whole thread, the way I understood it, was that the pump that comes with the Korallin unit is just for recirculating the water in the unit and that same pump is not for returning the water back up into the tank (I do not have a sump).

I ask because I tried a coil denitrator before and had a lot of trouble getting a good drip rate on the output tube back up into the tank (tried aqualifters & other methods). The drip rate changed a lot, within a sort period of time and I ended up with h2s in my tank which caused me a lot of trouble which included one dead, five year old flame angel.

My question is, am I correct that the pump that comes with the reactor does not pump water back up into the tank and would I potentially be left with the same problem I had with drips rates on the coil denitrator because of no effective method of getting the output water back up into the tank with the Korallin reactor? I am hopeful that the pump that comes with the unit does pump the water back up into the tank.

Has anyone else that doesn't have a sump used this Korallin unit successfully? And how did you get the water back into the tank with a constant drip rate?

TIA,
Veronica

[muzzy]

you are right veronica, the pump just circulates.

2 tips for you that will work that i use....

1) T off from a high powered pump, like 2000l/h for example, then buying redcuers you can come down from say the 20mm hose to RO pipe size about 1/4 inch

2) use a john guest type RO plumbing tap on the output pipe and you will get a very consistent drip rate.

ive not had to adjust mine at all in 3 weeks of running except to increase the output flow as the colonies have been building up and the nitrates dropping

[VP]

Thanks Muzzy, do you have a picture of your unit with the pump you use to return the water to the tank? I'm very visually oriented. What model of pump do you use for this application? One of my problems was never being able to find a pump with input/output that would reduce to the 1/8" tubing.

Thanks,
Veronica

[muzzy]

well i dont see any point in showing you a photo of the pump, a pump is a pump is a pump.
What you want to see really is the redcer i use.
Well it actually came with a Grotech calcium reactor, i wasnt using the connector for the calcium reactor, but its ideal for this purpose.

It has a 20mm connection at one end and 8mm at the other. As im feeding from a 16mm pipe i had to get another reducer to step up from 16mm to 20mm and connect this to the grotech reducer!
I have no idea where grotech get these from as ive never seen them before.

Ive then gone through a second connector with a tap to isolate the feed water if i need to. Connected airline tubing to this and this then feeds to the input on the reactor
image here

[muzzy]

actually it might not be 8mm, i dont know what size it is, its bigger than 1/4 inch ro pipe, so possibly 1/2inch, or a bit less

[VP]

So you don't have the pump at the output of the reactor, sucking the water up and back into the tank ... You have the pump pushing water into the reactor input and this is enough to get the water to flow through the reactor and back up into the tank? Is the pump in the tank or external to the tank? Hopefully I'm understanding this correctly.

I'm in the process of doing a BIG water change right this minute and would like to do smaller ones in the future. It would be great if I could get one of these working on my sumpless tank.

Thanks again for your time/help.

V

[muzzy]

yes, the water is pumped in, the unit works under pressure and cant leak, i have the output pipe going up about 3 foot above the reactor, into a secondary chamber filled with calcium carbonate to degas the effluent from the de-nitrator and my calcium reactor, this then drips into my skimmer outlet and back into the sump.
I dont know how much head height you can achieve on this method, but i would imagine up to about 4 foot would work.

the pump im using is in the sump and feeds a couple of other devices as well, UV lamp, carbon filter and phosphate reactor.

[robersiere]

I have the same configuration as Muzzy, and I have learned that it is all about the drip rate specially as your nitrates aproach to zero. i have arrived to my office (where my tank is) on a monday to find a smell of sulphur hidroxide. I believe a ball valve is too sensible to regulate the flow so I changed mine to a needle valve I found.

[VP]

My problem is I don't have a sump, so I don't know if this would work with my setup. (Too much $$ to spend not knowing if I will get the same problem that I had with the coil setup.)

Anyone with no sump have one of these setup and working? ... And how did you get the water back up to the tank assuming the unit is under the stand about 4 feet.

Thanks Muzzy,
V

[muzzy]

you could feed it on a syphon.
use an airline fed from the tank down to the reactor, you would need to suck air out first to start the syphon.
the feed will always be constant as its on a syphon, until some debris gets in the end, so fit the airline into some sponge.

the ultimate question is "will there be enough pressure to send the water back up to the tank"
until you try or find someone else doing it its going to be hard to judge, my instincts tell me that there wont be enough pressure, but ive been known to be wrong befoe (once!)

[VP]

I figured I would be gravity siphoning the input, my problem was always getting it back up and in the tank at a steady drip rate. I was thinking I could put an internal pump in the overflow of my Seaclear System II that pumps a high enough volume (like yours Muzzy) and see if that would be sufficient to create enough pressure to get the water down into the Korallin unit and back up into the tank ... or I could use an external pump that sits down by the Korallin unit that would just pull the effluent back up into the tank. Does anyone think that either one of those options would work?

... and both of those options would all hinge on me being able to get the right reducers from the pump to unit's small sized tubing. Anyone know where they sell a reducer that goes to say 1/2" to the size of the unit's tubing?

Thanks again everyone.

V

[muzzy]

possibly your best option is to use a peri pump, but being run 24/7 under that sort of strain it would need to be a high quality medical grade pump i would think

[zaireguy]

once you drop the nitrates to zero can you still run it 24/7 or do you change it over to a calcium reactor?I want to feed mine by gravity from my main tank down to the basement into my sump