Ultima

[tcav88]

I’ve got a couple 400s with sumps and 100lbs of ceramic media on a 6gph drip per tank, stock is 450 6bass 5 silver dollars 4 pikes
480 6 bass 4 pikes 5 severum black arowana. Is there any need for an ultima? Is it just mainly for mechanical? I don’t do water changes with the drip just change socks when needed, but I saw JK47 has a drip and still uses ultima filters. Any advice or tips is much appreciated

 

[TexasMFK31]

Ultima is typically more for biological media instead of mechanical media. Unless of course you size way up. I know pacu mom using some pool filters or is planning yo utilize some pool filter type media with her Ultimas. Hopefully she can chime in on that. My plan will be redundancy running dual Ultima 1000s for my ~900G build.

 

[pacu mom]

A search on Ultimas here on MFK will reveal some people needing more mechanical filtration in addition to their Ultimas. Ultima has always touted their media as having a very high bio surface area excellent for bio adhesion and colonization. Right now, I am running a wet/dry filter on the small 300 gallon tank. The frequent power outages in our area lasting many hours to days were especially problematic, requiring us to add water to the main tank to submerge the bio balls in the wet/dry filter...which was OK if I was at home. On our big system, I chose Ultimas because if the power is off, the media stays wet in the Ultima. I will be using two Ultima II 4000s primarily for biological filtration. Kind of a moot point now since the power is now off no longer than 10 seconds before the whole house generator kicks on. I plan on using six RTL-100s for mechanical filtration. I'm probably doing things backwards (but I don't care) and will use the 405 gal sump for redundant filtration, throwing in everything that caught my eye during 14 yrs of browsing fish forums....stuff like the Clarity CL-3 protein skimmer I plan on running off the sump.

The purging system of the Ultimas is especially appealing to me. I agree with TexasMKF31 that sizing up is probably the key for mechanical benefits.

 

[twentyleagues]

I’ve got a couple 400s with sumps and 100lbs of ceramic media on a 6gph drip per tank, stock is 450 6bass 5 silver dollars 4 pikes
480 6 bass 4 pikes 5 severum black arowana. Is there any need for an ultima? Is it just mainly for mechanical? I don’t do water changes with the drip just change socks when needed, but I saw JK47 has a drip and still uses ultima filters. Any advice or tips is much appreciated

JK47 has rays so he needs the extra bio to help with the increased ammonia those fish create. Id say if you are not having any issues with your bioload over powering your current filtration then it would be a waste. But if you are like others including myself I believe in over filtration and as much biomedia as possible to avoid future issues.

 

[tcav88]

Ultima is typically more for biological media instead of mechanical media. Unless of course you size way up. I know pacu mom using some pool filters or is planning yo utilize some pool filter type media with her Ultimas. Hopefully she can chime in on that. My plan will be redundancy running dual Ultima 1000s for my ~900G build.

A search on Ultimas here on MFK will reveal some people needing more mechanical filtration in addition to their Ultimas. Ultima has always touted their media as having a very high bio surface area excellent for bio adhesion and colonization. Right now, I am running a wet/dry filter on the small 300 gallon tank. The frequent power outages in our area lasting many hours to days were especially problematic, requiring us to add water to the main tank to submerge the bio balls in the wet/dry filter...which was OK if I was at home. On our big system, I chose Ultimas because if the power is off, the media stays wet in the Ultima. I will be using two Ultima II 4000s primarily for biological filtration. Kind of a moot point now since the power is now off no longer than 10 seconds before the whole house generator kicks on. I plan on using six RTL-100s for mechanical filtration. I'm probably doing things backwards (but I don't care) and will use the 405 gal sump for redundant filtration, throwing in everything that caught my eye during 14 yrs of browsing fish forums....stuff like the Clarity CL-3 protein skimmer I plan on running off the sump.

The purging system of the Ultimas is especially appealing to me. I agree with TexasMKF31 that sizing up is probably the key for mechanical benefits.

JK47 has rays so he needs the extra bio to help with the increased ammonia those fish create. Id say if you are not having any issues with your bioload over powering your current filtration then it would be a waste. But if you are like others including myself I believe in over filtration and as much biomedia as possible to avoid future issues.

Thank you all for the replies! No current issues at all I think I have enough media but it seems everyone is grabbing ultimas and reeflo pumps like it’s crack. added 4liters of seachem matrix to the 100lbs of ceramic I already have on each tank just because lol... I go media crazy as well so if I ever wanna add something or as they grow there’s still surfaces for more bacteria to grow to support stock.

 

[pacu mom]

Thank you all for the replies! No current issues at all I think I have enough media but it seems everyone is grabbing ultimas and reeflo pumps like it’s crack. added 4liters of seachem matrix to the 100lbs of ceramic I already have on each tank just because lol... I go media crazy as well so if I ever wanna add something or as they grow there’s still surfaces for more bacteria to grow to support stock.

My first Reeflo pump was put in use 13 1/2 years ago. I bought a second Hammerhead pump for back up. It's still in its box. My Hammerhead is a giant work horse of a pump performing flawlessly all these years. You can bet I stocked up on Reeflo pumps !!!