Moving bed filter idea

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amazontank

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Nov 14, 2010
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Miami and San Diego
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Hello friends hope everyone is well.
I got a couple Ziss K1 tumblers and they are small & it occurred to me I could add K1 media to my sump area where the water comes out. Loading a few liters of K1 to the back of my uniquarium with a big airstone should work?
Any advice on this idea?

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My homemade K1 moving bed filter sits inside a homemade sump; it took a number of experiments to get the shape of the K1 compartment just right for the K1 media to start circulating properly, and it took several days of running it in its final configuration before the K1 itself seemed to achieve some mystical "neutral buoyancy" state that allowed it to tumble as desired. It also uses probably as much air as all my tanks combined!

I think it's largely a waste of time. Sure, the K1 has a lot of surface area...but the tank is only going to support as many bacteria as the bioload allows; it was perfectly cycled before, so adding this thing did nothing functional for me. Yes, of course the K1 fanboys will trumpet how the tumbling action allows the media to "self-clean", sloughing off the older, weaker past-their-prime bacteria if favour of their younger, fighting-trim brethren...but, again, so what? A filter that works...i.e. maintains a sufficient bacterial population...is not going to work "better" by adding K1. The total bacterial population of the tank won't change, unless the bioload changes either through fish growth or the addition of more fish...and in those cases, the bacteria would have grown just fine on the old media. Proper mechanical pre-filtration will minimize the rate at which static biomedia clogs up...and most filters allow pretty easy access to the biomedia for the very occasional rinse required to negate the clogging.

If you intend to use only K1 it might make a bit more sense...but it looks like you already have some other biomedia in there. Are you planning on replacing that with K1?

I put this stuff in there for two reasons: because I got a bunch of it thrown in on a trade I was making, and because my young granddaughters loved watching it tumble as much as they enjoyed watching the fish. They've sort of outgrown that fascination...and the tank stand is now enclosed, so the K1 isn't really visible anymore (and it sounds like yours won't be either), so the only reason I still use it is because it's easier to leave it in than to remove it.
 
Each K1 piece is like an individual brain cell...and they all work together as a single cohesive intelligence, directed entirely at figuring out a way not to tumble the way I wanted them to! I eventually created a large, upward-facing cone of clear plastic, which forces the recalcitrant little buggers to re-enter the bubble stream and be flung upward.

I recently picked up a 70-ish-gallon tank constructed entirely of 3/4-inch glass. My current plan is to use this as an outdoor tank on my back deck, and I'm toying with the idea of building an external clear cone to utilize the K1. When you get it juuuuuuust right, the tumbling cylinders scour the sides of their container, preventing the accumulation of any algae...the girls might like seeing this stuff twinkling and tumbling in the sunshine. The only tricky part will be keeping it alive and mature for more than half of the year when it must be kept
indoors.

No matter how you slice it, I think this medium is way, way more trouble than it is worth...and, remember, I got it essentially for free! If I had paid actual folding money for it...I would be pissed off! :)
 
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John thanks for your post! Appreciate the feedback! I got these new hygger battery airpumps for all my tanks and now have extra air.
Was thinking if I put the K1 in all areas of the back of the uniquarium and use big airstones.
 
If the k1 stays suspended then yes normal but even if it doesn't it will support beneficial bacteria. Hopefully the airstone keeps all of the k1 moving.
I'm gonna try pumping some air stones in the outflow area and also the area on the left where a skimmer would go just load up K1!
 
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