DIY Sulfur Denitrator

[chicken]

Well with some information and motivation from Carlos over on the NJ Reefers Forum I am finally starting my Sulfur Denitrator. Hopefully I'll finish up this weekend but here are some pictures and information what I have gotten done so far.

Goal: Build a sulfur denitrator for my FOWLR system. System consists of a 600g tank (120x30x36T), 300g Rubbermaid sump & a 900g Fuge. The reactor is going to be two chambers. The first chamber will be a recirculating one made of 8" acrylic tube 18" tall. 2/3rds of the chamber will be full of SeaChem Matrix Biomedia while the other 1/3rd will be High Purity Sulfur from Midwest Aquatic. The recirculating pump will be an eheim 1250. The second chamber will be full of course CaribSea ARM media. That chamber will be 6" acrylic tube 12" tall.

Here is a shot of the plumbing for the pump. I am using Schedule 40 gray PVC for everything as I like the looks a lot better. All my PVC parts are from US Plastics. They have a great selection of parts and are cheap. I do not like using vinyl tubing anywhere so the pump will be hard plumbed. The eheim uses 3/8" thread on the output and 1/2" on the intake. The problem is the threads are British Standard Pipe Thread (BSP). Normal US fittings fit very tight on the 3/8" side but very loose on the 1/2" side. I just loaded up on Teflon tape and it has worked fine in the past for other DIY Projects. If anyone knows a good source for BSP fittings let me know as I have not found any. For the 3/8" side I just used a 3/8" close nipple (USP # 30209) to a reducing bushing (USP # 28252). On the intake side I am using a T at the end with a threaded female adapter. This will allow me to put a strainer on (as pictured) so the Denitrator can be used without a feed pump like the H&S ones, or I can put in a threaded reducing bushing down to 1/4" and use a john guest fitting to feed it with.



Next comes the base plate the two Acrylic Cylinders will be attached to. I like using Ridged PVC sheet for this type of stuff. It machines nicely and does not crack as easy as acrylic. You just need to make sure you use the right glue. IPS Weld On 16 works great for PVC to Acrylic joints or IPS Weld On 2007 for PVC to PVC joints.

So for the intake and output pluming I wanted to drill two holes through that would be water tight and have no gap so I could glue them perfectly. The problem is I don't have a bit that is the exact OD of 1/2" PVC. So I picked the forstner bit that was just a little bit smaller and drilled through the PVC.



From there I made a jig for my router table so I could use a flush trim router bit. The jig is just a piece of scape wood with a 1/2" pvc coupling hot glued in. I did this on a flat surface to make sure I got the coupling in strait.



From there I just applied double stick tape (the really paper thin type) to the wood and centered it over the PVC.



From there I just put the piece over my bit in the router table and flush trimmed it. Make sure to use a good quality spiral flush trim bit. It leaves a perfect finish on the PVC



Tomorrow I am going to start working on the cutting the acrylic tubing and building the flanges for the top. From there its time to start gluing it all together. BTW the cheapest source I have found for 1/8" Cell Cast acrylic tubing that I use is Freckle Face. Great people to deal with.

Here is a parting shot of the 20 L container of Matrix I bought. As soon as I am done with this denitrator I have one to make for a friend of mine who is a wholesaler with a 3000g Fish System. Sump is only 400g so there are a lot of tanks to deal with.

[djfrankie]

Any update on this?

BTW, great shop!

djfrankie

[chicken]

djfrankie I'll have an update by this weekend. Thanks for the shop comments. I love my shop. Gets me away from my damn job

[russ49merc]

can you use just a phosban reactor for this?

[uncleant]

caint wate to see it finished

[chicken]

Russ... You could potentially use a phosban reactor but you would need to convert it to be recirculating like a CA reactor. Also that size reactor would not be anywhere near large enough to deal with my size system. I am planning a few hours in the shop tomorrow night so I should be able to post some updates then. Thanks

[megaspoot]

I agree, awesome shop! Can't wait to see it finished.

Got any pics of your FOWLR?

[russ49merc]

Originally posted by chicken
Russ... You could potentially use a phosban reactor but you would need to convert it to be recirculating like a CA reactor. Also that size reactor would not be anywhere near large enough to deal with my size system. I am planning a few hours in the shop tomorrow night so I should be able to post some updates then. Thanks

thanks for the reply. I know you need a huge one but I was saying for a smaller system. I can't wait to see yours finished and then i can probably get a better idea of how it works.

[uncleant]

any updates?

[erics3000]

Sweet..How about some pics of you setup too...

[chicken]

Unfortunately no updates yet. My friend came over today and helped me tear apart a few other things and get some other projects done. Hopefully tomorrow or Monday I'll have an update. Thanks!

[janey]

OOoh can u build me one ??/