Hi! It's me again! 
just a quick back story: I am getting a 55g 4ft tank ready for a green terror 2-3 Senegal bichirs and 12 'could be food' tiger barbs
its been cycling with my old Fluval 206 from a smaller tank. But hey, I need a MUCH better filtration for the stock! So I though of buying a bigger canister filter and after seeing the prices I went pale! Did some reaserch and decided that for me it would be 1000 times cheaper to build a sump( a good Fluval or eihem filter would cost anything from £60 - £200 where I would only spend not more than £50 on the sump)! I have a 20g tank sitting around that will fit into the stand with plenty of spare space plus I have a hydor l30 pump rated at 320g. So really all I would really have to buy is the glass for the separators and some pipes and egg rate to hold things in place and more media.
As far as the media goes, I will use my biomedia from the Fluval + get some more + mechanical ( different grade sponges) BUT here is where you guys come to play! I have some K1 media left from my old setup, apart from the noisy airpum I was rally happy with it! So I was wondering if any of you have any experience with this media. Also I don't know where I should locate it - defo after mechanical filtration so that the debris don't get to it, but should I put it before bio media or after??
The media I have is designed to remove everything; ammonia, n and n (when it's fully cycled) so putting the k1 before seems ok, BUT surely the whole purpose of k1 is to get rid of a weaker bacteria, so the strong bacteria would get to the media, die or weaken in there and go back up to my tank?!
Am I just complicating my life or is it a legit consideration?
just a quick back story: I am getting a 55g 4ft tank ready for a green terror 2-3 Senegal bichirs and 12 'could be food' tiger barbsits been cycling with my old Fluval 206 from a smaller tank. But hey, I need a MUCH better filtration for the stock! So I though of buying a bigger canister filter and after seeing the prices I went pale! Did some reaserch and decided that for me it would be 1000 times cheaper to build a sump( a good Fluval or eihem filter would cost anything from £60 - £200 where I would only spend not more than £50 on the sump)! I have a 20g tank sitting around that will fit into the stand with plenty of spare space plus I have a hydor l30 pump rated at 320g. So really all I would really have to buy is the glass for the separators and some pipes and egg rate to hold things in place and more media.
As far as the media goes, I will use my biomedia from the Fluval + get some more + mechanical ( different grade sponges) BUT here is where you guys come to play! I have some K1 media left from my old setup, apart from the noisy airpum I was rally happy with it! So I was wondering if any of you have any experience with this media. Also I don't know where I should locate it - defo after mechanical filtration so that the debris don't get to it, but should I put it before bio media or after??
The media I have is designed to remove everything; ammonia, n and n (when it's fully cycled) so putting the k1 before seems ok, BUT surely the whole purpose of k1 is to get rid of a weaker bacteria, so the strong bacteria would get to the media, die or weaken in there and go back up to my tank?!
Am I just complicating my life or is it a legit consideration?
