Bio- filter questions

If adding more media, I personally would get K1 to mix with the ultima. Ultima has 3x the surface area but it is designed to hold crud inside of it until backwashed. I think the combo between the two medias would be the bee's knees. Although my bioreactor is non existent at the moment, I have done extensive reading. The crud at the bottom of the reactor will be mostly dead bio if prefiltering. The whole point of a bioreactor is to knock the older, dead/dying bb off of the media so that young, hungry bb can thrive. A reactor loaded with bio should have dead bb falling off of the media in mass amounts. An oversized bioreactor running properly does not need prefiltered but it will need the crap and dead bb removed regularly.

Mr. Allgood said:

A reactor loaded with bio should have dead bb falling off of the media in mass amounts. An oversized bioreactor running properly does not need prefiltered but it will need the crap and dead bb removed regularly.

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Where did u read this?


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I disagree about the prefiltering. I believe it's vital with reactors.

Trev what are you using for socks? I thought they were the long ones, but what micron and where do you get them?

I'd like to think my system had adequate prefiltering, but everything can always be improved. I built the radial flow separators I'm using to get more life out of my socks so I can make it through the workweek before they need changed. Maybe I do need to look into better socks.......

I will check the socks but i havent bought new ones in about a year...

I do wash mine about every three days though. I cant go a week, i will notice my water quality starts going down hill.

I dont understand how you can have clear water, your reactor gets fed from the clean part of a sump, and somehow manage to get crap in your reactor. And be bad enough that you need to drain the crap out?

Just sounds to me like too many people forget the KISS thing... Proper mechanical, bio, and waterchanges.


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I agree with you Trevor. Mechanical, bio, water change. 3 stages.

I run the 7x32 100 micron socks before my reactor and I t off all pipes so I run multiple on every return. It's all in sump with lots of flow but everything is spotless in my sump. That is why I love my reactor setup because everything is so clean and nothing collects in my sump at all. I hated the other medias that would collect crap in the sump. I never clean anything but my socks and that's about once a week everything else is perfect no gunk collecting anywhere in the system.

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I cant find the exact socks im using but im pretty sure they are 100 micron from aquatic eco. Im running 4 socks per 450 gallon


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Ahh, plants can make a mess really easily. And seem to especially if they don't have much flow going through them.
If you have allot of stock and don't use as many socks as possible and the large socks (32 inches long) you need to change them often.

I have 9 socks filtering on my system of 1300 gallons of display water. So I went over load on socks but they last a long time and if I feed allot they still last a week. Kinda nice with the system all tied together because they all work at filtering the water. If one overflows the other socks would pick up the load as the stuff gets circulated around though all the tanks.

burbon44s said:

I had to go with a 300 micron filter because I was cleaning a 200 every day.
I've got plants in my sump, maybe that's where all the dirt is coming from.?

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