Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunburst
Interesting discussion on Denitrator and would like to share my views on using coil and carbon fed denitrator NR1000 before adopting the use of sulphur-based denitrator.
My thought is to explore the explore the the Schuran Nitrate Filter is one-third of the cost of the NR5000. 
The only difference is that it used sulphur beads as the media to encourage the growth of the bacteria which oxidise sulphur to produce sulphate and reduce nitrate to nitrogen gas in the process.
I have been using this in a freshwater environment previously before migrating to a marine application for about 2 years now despite the fact that
it is best suited to freshwater hobbyists than marine reefers.
So far it has been holding well with NO3 undectable under low resolution nitrate test kit. |
Schuan Nitrate Filter is small as compare to NR5000 which is quite huge. It should be compare to NR1000.
IMO, sulphur based is more suitable for marine reefer than freshwater hobbyist. . The reaction series (4 NO3 + 3 S = 2 N2 + 3 SO4 or 2 H2O + 5 S + 6 NO3- à 3 N2 + 5 SO4-- + 4 H+) involved is acidic (sulpuric acid)and thus it must be tied up with very good buffering. As such most reefer will combine the sulphur based denitrator with a calcium reactor.
Using sulphur based denitrator will result in excess sulfate which is not common for freshwater but not so in seawater.
Sulphur-based denitrification in freshwater is based upon autotrophic denitrification by sulphur-oxidizing bacteria, such as Thiobacillus denitrificans and Thiomicrospira denitrificans.