So I’d like to turn my fluidized bed sump into a refugium, how would that effect my nitrogen cycle? I have an external deep sand bed with a small black worm colony, it’s a 40 gallon tote with 6inches of sand fed by a 120gph powerhead that runs through a 60w UV sterilizer. My sump is a 40b with a cubic foot of K1. Tank is 125 gal with heavy stocking but the top is covered in pothole and peace lily. The tank has tons of Malaysian drift wood and between that and the sand beds wouldn’t there be plenty of surface area?
Do I really need bio media?
- Thread starter Willyy
- Start date
Hello; Short answer is no. Fifty some years ago I ran tanks with only air operated UGF. The substrate became the "bio-media." In a bare tank he glass will home the bb and in a sense be the bio-media.
The bb form a film on surfaces. You already have many surfaces so have "bio-media."
The bb form a film on surfaces. You already have many surfaces so have "bio-media."
It may be possible but I would recommend you remove the K1 a little bit at a time over several months. If you remove it all at once then you will surely crash your tank. Also, while doing this, test your water parameters often to make sure you’re not getting to the point that you don’t have enough bio media. If you get to that point, you will start to see ammonia creep up and you will know that you’ve gone too far. Lastly, if possible, try to keep the K1 you remove cycled by adding a little bit of ammonia, the cleaner, to the container you put the K1 into, every day or two. This will allow you to add it back already cycled in the event you need to.
What skjl47 says is very very true. I think everyone who has an aquarium, no matter what size, will have a dedicated area for bio media whether it's in a section of a sump or a cannister filter or whatever. This seems to be the law of aquaria, you must have a bio media area. No you don't. I've been tinkering with one of the sumps on my 180's for the past 18 months or so. Initially my central chamber was stuffed with bags of ceramic rings, plastic bio balls and old off cuts of coarse sponges.
I soon realised that just because i have a dedicated area for my BB to grow, does that mean that this is the only area that they live? Absolutely not. BB are all over your tank. I'm betting that there's as much on the surface of your glass/acrylic, substrate, decor and inside drain and return line pipework than what there is in any dedicated bio media area.
This is something i've been proving to myself for the past 18 months. Everytime i do a water change i'll take a bit of bio media out of the mid section of my sump. Presently my mid section is very sparse on one of my 180's now, my other 180 i haven't touched yet, and i wont until i prove to myself that i can run my experimental tank bio media free. Thus far i haven't had a single issue with parameters, no crashes, mini cycles or anything. Maybe i've just been extremely lucky, i don't think so.
Meanwhile my experiment will continue.
I soon realised that just because i have a dedicated area for my BB to grow, does that mean that this is the only area that they live? Absolutely not. BB are all over your tank. I'm betting that there's as much on the surface of your glass/acrylic, substrate, decor and inside drain and return line pipework than what there is in any dedicated bio media area.
This is something i've been proving to myself for the past 18 months. Everytime i do a water change i'll take a bit of bio media out of the mid section of my sump. Presently my mid section is very sparse on one of my 180's now, my other 180 i haven't touched yet, and i wont until i prove to myself that i can run my experimental tank bio media free. Thus far i haven't had a single issue with parameters, no crashes, mini cycles or anything. Maybe i've just been extremely lucky, i don't think so.
Meanwhile my experiment will continue.
I think I may try this, regardless I have way more than sufficient bio media, may take some out of the sump and just have a deep gravel/sand mix and a DIY K1 reactor. That was I can grow plants and fry down in the sump. 40b isn’t very high so I should get some good growth rates in that shallow water.
Give it a go by all means but be careful. Don't forget, I've been removing bits of bio media little bits at a time over 18 months of water changes. Never once have i removed a big wedge of it at once. That way i have ensured that there haven't been any sudden shocks to my BB system. Also i don't know what your stock is, your feeding or maintainance regime. Tread carefully, my story of relative success (so far), could turn out to be your worst nightmare resulting in a nitrogen cycle meltdown.