Running k1 without air?
- Thread starter john C
- Start date
The air movement is just a cheap and easy way to move the media...and you can position the air to affect the best movement unlike a powerhead that would need the intake screened so you wouldnt get the media sticking to it and restricting flow. I believe there is also a school of thought that, adding air, helps the bacteria oxygenate...but I don't believe that....but the main reason is for the movement.
The media is slightly above neutral boyancy so it doesn't require much to move and tumble it....so a very small circ pump would be very adequate.
The media is slightly above neutral boyancy so it doesn't require much to move and tumble it....so a very small circ pump would be very adequate.
You might run into a problem. Part of the reason K1 is so good is due to the high bacteria populations. As a result they consume a lot of
Oxygen. You run the risk of depleting the tank of oxygen.
Oxygen. You run the risk of depleting the tank of oxygen.
Not true. The BB colony will only populate to accomodate the available food/waste. The oxygen needed to facilitate this process isn't any more than needed for other media...like scintered glass or ceramic or bio drip balls...
The common misconception about adding an air stone to an aquarium to raise the oxygen content will NEVER go away!!!
All bacteria in a closed system involving a recurrent bio load will use disolved oxygen.
Aeration will not increase oxygen levels in water just by bubbling bubbles up through the water column. The bubbles breaking the surface, essentially "stretching" the surface of the water exposes more water to the atmosphere to affect the natural gas exchange. The only way to increase oxygen in water is to: A, rapid exposure of as much water as possible to the air through turbulent movement or B, actually subjecting the water to pressurized O2 infusion at a microscopic level.
The minor movement acheived by adding an air stone may increase O2 levels, but only because the depleted water in the lower regions of the water column is being moved to the surface.
The reason oxygen is reduced in a bio-media treated water, and maybe its a surprise to people who have had inadequate bio filtration, is because of the growth of benificial bacteria.
Now, K1 is an efficient and effective bio-media, but it isn't doing anything new that other media isn't doing other than the "knocking off" of heavier older bacteria throught the movement allowing new, more inergetic bacteria to colonize....
My info is gleaned from years in school and a decade as a waste water plant operator. The science is very easy to understand, and the process is very simple and easy to learn about.
Before K1 was around, fluidized sand bed filtration was all the rage. In fact, and I will stand firm in this, fluidized sand has way more surface area then K1 could ever possibly have. Scintered glass and ceramic foam media far out performs any non-porus media pound for pound for available surface area colonization.
K1 was developed by the aqua culture industry because of the lower cost associated with it. Massive tanks and ponds have virtually no water movement compared to an aquarium....hence the warning about O2 depletion in an already low O2 environment. K1 has come along and replaced plastic bead filters, of which the media has very little surface area, and been a very viable and efficient bio media replacement. K1 has also improved aqua culture by adding, by virtue of its design, much needed circulation to systems lacking it before.
Wow thats some good info!!! I use k1 in my sump and it tumbles just fine with the water movement between baffles with no air. I also use it stable in a big bin on another system with no movement. It can be used the same as bip balls or matrix
Works just fine, I have mine running off water pumps, ive done both air and water pumps, personally big air pumps such as the AP 100 and any other pondmaster ones I do not trust, I went through a good amount of money to a waste from them, then used the water pumps I have and nothing changed all has been good and fine with my bio reactors.