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Thread: Sulfur Denitrator anyway to set a negative ORP

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    Frequent Visitor KRoss's Avatar
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    Sulfur Denitrator anyway to set a negative ORP

    I would like to attach an ORP probe to it, but it requires - ORP reading. Before I go split the wire open and reverse it, I thought I would ask is thier any other way to do this?

    Terrance did post on Reef2Reef that there is a formula if you use he PH setting instead of the ORP, but I been searching the web for such a formula?

    Thanks

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    See my post in this thread.
    https://forum.neptunesystems.com/sho...t=negative+orp
    IMO simpler to just buy a short male/female BNC extension and reverse the wires. That way you just switch in the reversed adapter when things go below 0mv.

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    Go to local electronic parts store buy a male BNC fitting, buy a female and buy 6" of small 22 gauge wire. Cut the wire in half. Fire up the old soldering gun and stick inside to outside and outside to inside. Seal it up with some plastic dip type electric tape in a jar with the little brush. done deal. mine cost maybe 10$ all parts included. works perfect. AND BTW LOVE MY DENItRATOR!!!!!
    Watch your alkalinity and remember need to remove P04 separately. VERY VERY VERY EFFECTIVE. I'm using 1 gallon of media on a 525Gallon/2000 liter medium fish load, heavy corals load. Huge skimmer. About .5PPm of no3 per day was what i was seeing at a maximum incoming rate between water changes and once i saw 20 i saw clear issues with corals so looked for a better way to manage No3. bio pellets accused cyano, vinegar in ato worked very good to be honest. If you want to know more let me know.. GL

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    Frequent Visitor KRoss's Avatar
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    Thanks!!!

    I am getting ready to put it on this weekend. I did purchase the AquaMaxx TS-2 Sulfur Denitrator with a FMM Solenoid Valve with the ORP probe also. I been using an algea scrubber an it been working but the maintenance on it in all honesty is a bit tedious. I been dosing Red Sea NO3/PO4 at a rate where it not economical anymore. Plus I been reading on quite a few forums it seems when it dialed in it is set and forget. I figure the Solenoid can be used as an emergency cutoff if I see issues. I will let you know my results!!.

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    I found vinegar in the auto to be very very effective. vs all other things i tried. but i saw spikes of bacteria growing out of control in the area i was dosing it into. so i backed off.

    ***I have my output running straight into my skimmer intake area. it now makes my skimmate whitesh in color and thats where the fastest re oxygenation will happen of the effluent.

    I run a mj 900 pump 24-7 feeding into an old reef octopus Ca reactor with the c02 portion capped. I'm at -140 orp with the little piece i made up on my apex. i am tracking it but not using it for any live control of it. its very stable. I am using a plastic clamp much like a vice grip that i have found to be superior to any other way of managing flow. any small chunk of plastic with holes in two ends to bolt thru to the other side to make into a small clamp "like a hair clip for women maybe or a chip clip sort of thing seems to never clog and be micro adjustable. there commonly used in copper to attack ground lugs to a ground rod for an even better mental picture of these things. my filtration guy has them stock on his ca reactors don't know where he gets them. Way way better than specialty needle valves n stuff. The drip ratio goes like they say, slow to get it cycled in, then ramp up slowly till you get to a maxed out point where incoming oxygen is too much for the reactor to process with the n03 load your holding. Its incredible. If they get away from you, you'll see a brief bacteria bloom which if you had poor oxygenation may cause issues if left unchecked. So for apex control i think a "set pump to off for 10 minutes min if orp is less than 50 + txt / audible warning" and, txt/ audible only if or more than 300, might be a good safety type idea for programing basics. keep us informed

    BTW as my test run on my setup, I was able to cycle a 55 gallon drum of 150+ no3 old rock in under 2 weeks from a dry new reactor to 0-2 no3. Freaking awesome.

    Also I'm not looking for a pinch valve flow control or anything as i just haven't seen the need to adjust frequently unless you have huge swings in food or water quality for some reason. if the system ends up being too good just half the sulphur with some filler Ca media. I'm not even running my effluent thru media ATM. its about 7.0- 7.1 PH on the exit. I plan to let it go to 0-1 no3, see if i can hold stable there with my quantity of sulfur media. which is 1 gallon ATM, and then leave it go on like that or go back to a small load of vinegar in my auto as final maintenance for below .05 type ultra low nutrient. Vs 1-5 type range which is where I'm at now. i like what i have so i only want to keep it there.

    i promise you will love it. don't over complicate it don't rush it. just like a ca reactor maybe easier to be honest with out the c02 pressure gauges to deal with. anyone with a 400+ system i think this is a must have if you have n03 issues for more than a year or two. i do run BB and i have minimal rock no huge so i have little places for bacteria to do there job naturally. hence the sulphur reactor.

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    Sulfur Denitrator anyway to set a negative ORP

    For the calculation, 58mV of ORP is a full unit of pH, and anything greater than 7 is negative. So, if you swap the probe input type from ORP to pH, a reading of 7 would be 0, 8 would be -58mV, 9 would be -116mV, etc.

    My system is currently cycling again, so my ORP started at +445 and is now at +113 or so. Almost there. I've validated this conversion between ORP and pH at a couple points and it aligns as expected. Once it goes negative will not be able to check anymore, so I did it a couple times positive.

    EDIT: Yeah, just as Simon P posted in the thread when I was asking, sorry, hah! It works great, that I can confirm!

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    Yep, what he said ^

    Do it this way and just get used to using ~10pH as the sweet spot.

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    Frequent Visitor KRoss's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Terence View Post
    Yep, what he said ^

    Do it this way and just get used to using ~10pH as the sweet spot.
    Does it break in like a normal orp probe when we use it this way?

    Again thanks everyone for commenting, glad to see a few of us are doing it!! Be great if we share all of our results.

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    sorry to make this all out too confusing but I'm just posting what i saw happen while i tried to figure it out. I will agree with one simple post by another user. if it smells like rotten eggs speed up drip if not slow down. you want to be just above rotten eggs. the rest is unneeded complication.. lol
    I can't agree with the 10 ph thing from my experience thus far.
    I was seeing 7.0 as a regular when i smelled sulphur ish smell. It was when it got over 7.0 seemed to smell ok. so to me 9.0 is no good and 6.0 would be major deep on the matching -0RP. maybe I'm not clear on what type of probe you using Vs the setting your telling the apex. I was set to ph as ph normal and i was reading ph and the higher it went ph wise the less denitrification i saw from the unit. I have swapped back n forth with active ph and orp probes in the same port of my reactor" separate dedicated port on the apex nothing funny. just normal ph in ph and orp" in or with out changing settings and saw that what seemed to be a 7.0 ph was close to what a slightly - or say -30-0 orp was matching. i was trying to keep my Ph under 7.0 above 6.85 to get good denitrificaiton till i made my crossover piece to read or correctly. i now run at 150 or with a homemade cross over piece to invert my - orp so that it can begin reading a number under zero which now shows as a positive number on the apex with only the piece i made no other modification to my apex system in anyway. The effluent ph seems to be 7.11 at -100 on my system with no Ca media involved in the reactor in any way. i do have a slightly old ph probe which could be bit off. And all of this takes time to settle after you move them around by the way.

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    Frequent Visitor KRoss's Avatar
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    Sorry to bring up old thread.

    Finally got mine also online. Was suppose to do it back in April but Life issues came up and had to let it sit in the box.

    I did reverse the ORP cable, so now a few questions:

    What do you turn off if you see a sudden swing in ORP, or PH? Do You turn off the feed, and the re-circulation or just the feed pump?

    Since I reversed the ORP, is the sweet spot 0 then?

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    Quote Originally Posted by KRoss View Post
    Sorry to bring up old thread.

    Finally got mine also online. Was suppose to do it back in April but Life issues came up and had to let it sit in the box.

    I did reverse the ORP cable, so now a few questions:

    What do you turn off if you see a sudden swing in ORP, or PH? Do You turn off the feed, and the re-circulation or just the feed pump?

    Since I reversed the ORP, is the sweet spot 0 then?
    I found the orp probe can react a bit slow to changes. so go slow give it a day to stabiles after a big change or probe clean.
    I only set mine to alarm/warn if out side a reading of <100 and >450 which is of course negative values of 100 and 450. I find my sweet spot is about -375. which leave en ought room for daily swing and good denitrification volume per day.

    And as long as flow is stable the reactor is very stable. I was able to get to .5 PPM of N03 and its holding there now. flow is almost a light stream, broken into lost of drips. haven't checked ML/min lately. reactor has 1 gallon of media. Its runs in recirculation. when the real tor clouds up it a waring something is up. either flow has gotten too slow and your int he -500 range from what i have noticed. and i see insufficient denitrification around 0-100. 250 seems less stable from day to night tank ph swings. but 375 seems to be a great average to target.

    I'd never shut of the recirculation pump personally. and may consider the feed pump, but i'd be afraid of a failure to restart or a siphon issue. I also now let the effluent go straight into he skimmer intake. which has made my skillet whitish and worse smelling. i really only want to know if i get out of the sweet spot and have some time to readjust the drip rate. if i get out of the sweet spot a little its not big deal the system can handle the unit being out a bit for a few days till i adjust it again. its more i want to know via warning that its out so i can see why. IE pump failure or drip rate clog or something.

    If its totally anaerobic then it will smell like rotten eggs and begin to need of purged of gas in the reactor. so i target just under that level. I don't want to over strip the N03 then starve the reactor and see random surges because of 0 available N03. of far haunts been an issue. and very very effective nothing but great results to me so far. colors are awesome. i can feed more and not worry as well. My tangs appreciate that!

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