Thinking out loud: K1 and mattenfilter

[Charney]

I have another post running about setting up a fish room discussing central vs individual tanks. I have got a lot of great info off it and saved all the advice. Unfortunately in the last week or so disaster struck some of my tanks and I have had a fair amount of loss. As a result, I am delaying setting up my fish room for a year and just maintaining what I have. I am going to have my largest tanks on a central system, but to minimize losses like I just suffered I want tanks up to 180 gallons to be individually filtered so I can leave the central system to the big tanks.

I have been scanning a lot of ideas online and I really like the idea of porin foam and K1 media. I want to hybridize the ideas. if you look at the swisstropicals website they use the porin foam to make a corner unit that kind of sits in the tank like a built in corner overflow but is foam and acts a sponge filter. The fish room will be run by a blower and can easily run one of these corner filters. Why not fill the space behind the foam with K1 and have the blower churn that as well. Do you think this could work for a big tank if both corners where done or both corners and a semicircle on the back wall mid tank? These will be mostly breeding tanks and looks is irrelevant. To be honest even if they are not breeding tanks looks are irrelevant.

 

[fuzzlebug]

K1 needs a lot of boil and a lot of space, generally you'd look for, for example, a 100g drum filled with 65g of k1 and 35g of water. It doesn't need to be submerged totally, it just has to boil and soak, Idk how that helps with your question but if you want to put a k1 reactor in the corner like an overflow to be effective it'll have to be a decent size.


Sent from my iPod touch using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[Miguel]

That Sponge system works. Germans swear by it.

But, as said, K1 needs to boil heabily. Am not sure you will achieve that behind the spomge.

 

[Charney]

Thanks for the replies. I know you are supposed to really get the k1 moving. If you have a blower that is plumped to run the fish room is it possible to achieve high agitation with multiple lines and airstones or will this not happen?


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[deeda]

I'd also like to state that a lot of debris gets behind the Poret when used as a HMF and it acts as a settling chamber so you don't want to have any agitation behind the foam wall or else that debris will be sent back into the tank.

 

[DB junkie]

The K1's going to shed dead bio. This is likely going to plug the sponge could lead to stagnant sponges due to lack of flow through them.

You can hybridize moving beds and wet/dries though..... Maybe in addition to the foam walls?

 

[Charney]

I'd also like to state that a lot of debris gets behind the Poret when used as a HMF and it acts as a settling chamber so you don't want to have any agitation behind the foam wall or else that debris will be sent back into the tank.

is this because it gets around the foam or does it go through the foam?

The K1's going to shed dead bio. This is likely going to plug the sponge could lead to stagnant sponges due to lack of flow through them.

You can hybridize moving beds and wet/dries though..... Maybe in addition to the foam walls?

I thought porin sponge is really hard to clog? unfortunately I think having a wet dry or moving bed fitler will add a lot more electronics per tank. I just wonder if that would become too expensive in the long run to run each tank that way.

 

[deeda]

I think the debris is just the natural filtration process, similar to the stuff you see in any power or canister filter.

Poret filter media will clog, how fast depends on the pore size you use. I am using 20 ppm Poret as HMF's in my tanks and when I notice a water height difference from one side of the foam to the other, I know it is time to clean the foam. How long it takes to plug up the pores depends on a few different factors such as how much you feed, how many fish, etc.

 

[Charney]

I think the debris is just the natural filtration process, similar to the stuff you see in any power or canister filter.

Poret filter media will clog, how fast depends on the pore size you use. I am using 20 ppm Poret as HMF's in my tanks and when I notice a water height difference from one side of the foam to the other, I know it is time to clean the foam. How long it takes to plug up the pores depends on a few different factors such as how much you feed, how many fish, etc.

one of the things they tote on their website is that is rarely has to be cleaned. What size tanks are you using it on and how often are you rinsing it?

 

[deeda]

Two 20L, six 33L, six 30B, and six 30G tanks. The 30G tanks have been set up a couple years and I usually clean them once per year though a bad cyanoalgae outbreak necessitated more frequent cleanings. They are the sole filters on these tanks.

The frequency of needed cleaning depends on stocking levels and other factors as noted on Stephan's website.