brown gunk in nitrate reactor

jsong · 10/19/2016, 05:21 PM

Been running a nitrate reactor for about 8 months with great success in bringing down my nitrates. Had 50+ ppm nitrates before the reactor…came down to 0.5ppm which was great.

Then I started to get this brown gunk around the sulphur beads. I washed it out and it looked more greenish-brown…couldn’t tell what it was. Just ended up replacing with fresh sulphur and started again.

It’s been 6 weeks since the switch and now I’m starting to see it starting again.

I ran the reactor for a full week with an aqualifter without throttling back hoping this would clear it out but this had no effect.

Anyone else experience this with their nitrate reactor? Is it ok to just keep running with this? Effluent was still reading as 0 nitrates so I’m wondering if this doesn’t matter.

mcgyvr · 10/19/2016, 05:37 PM

never used a sulphur denitrator but I'd expect that to simply be an excess of bacteria (bacterial slime/sludge)
Maybe flow rates through are lower now and its not being "expelled" and taken in by your skimmer..

It can have a "redish/brown" tint to it..

10/19/2016, 05:37 PM	#2
mcgyvr Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: North Carolina Posts: 20,050	never used a sulphur denitrator but I'd expect that to simply be an excess of bacteria (bacterial slime/sludge) Maybe flow rates through are lower now and its not being "expelled" and taken in by your skimmer.. It can have a "redish/brown" tint to it.. __________________ Who me?