Moving media thoughts

My opinion moving filtration works best. Of course volume of media and contact time is most important. With moving media you minimize dead pockets, you can ensure all media is in contact with fresh water, and with the larger chamber you can ensure longer contact with the media.

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I have 180g sumps on my larger tanks (1000g+) and definitely prefer the moving bed in a sump.i still use both moving bed and ultimas but prefer moving bed.

I am not 100% sure so I cannot answer that. what I do know is ultimas trap waste whereas moving beds are prefiltered.(at least in my case). isn't the idea to get rid of waste BEFORE bio has to convert it? I keep my socks clean (50 micron) and have crystal clear water.

I would love to just hook up a huge Ultima and call it a day. I tried emailing them a little back asking about hooking ultimas up to multiple tanks or if you have to have one per tank or what. Sumps sure work but all the piping and everything gets annoying after a while. I figure if you ran a huge Ultima off a system you can add in a little if you ever needed better clarity or more bio. I see a large pond and one filter in my future then all the separate tanks dumping into that pond like it's the sump.

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scott s said:

Is there a difference in the type of bacteria living in the media that comes in contact with air compared to the completely submerged type?

Strictly preference?

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The bacteria in a moving bed (bioreactor, sump, etc) with or without bio chips, will be more efficient than a closed pressure filter. Older dead bacteria will slough off with the constant tumbling from aeration leaving surface area for newer bacteria to form.

I use both pressure filters (bead, glass, ultima etc) and open air moving bed on all my tanks. With pressure filters, my mindset has always been to use them strictly as a form of mechanical filtration and any additional biological filtration I get is a bonus. The volume of waste rays produce requires frequent backwashing which reduces the beneficial bacteria concentration in the closed vessel.

So if you are looking for the more efficient bio filtration, and already have good mechanical filtration setup, moving bed is the way to go IMO.