Bio media

[Darrell Ward]

Hey Bill, just curious about what you are running in the media reactor sitting in floor beside the sump in the pictures?

[Inland Empire Discus]

Hey Bill, just curious about what you are running in the media reactor sitting in floor beside the sump in the pictures?

It is a DIY ozone reactor. I run about 360 mg/hr of ozone through it and back into the return side of the sump so it goes straight from the reactor to the tanks. No Carbon just straight in.

Bill

[TURQ64]

This all seems like pretty good stuff; perhaps it's time to move on from my wet/dry's.....Gary

[abmcdonald]

O.k. I was almost completely convinced until I was thinking through things a little the middle of last night as I was unable to sleep and a new question arose. How is the moving media any better than the traditional trickle style wet/dry filter in terms of sluffing off old bacteria? In the trickle filter the water flows over the media and I would think brushes off the old bio build up. With Kaldnes the media moves instead of the water. I would think the flow past the Kaldnes would actually be slower/less able to knock of old/bad bacteria as the media simply flows with the water. Maybe the slower flow past the media is the good thing about Kaldnes as that allows longer contact time. Any thoughts?

[dbfzurowski]

Well, I've had my sump for about 2 months and I noticed most of the beneficial bacteria is in high flow areas such as tubes/pipes to and from the sump. Today I pulled out some of the bio balls and there is nothing on them. My used to be clear tube from pump to tank is brown inside. I'm sure the next sump is going to be with the moving bio.

[roundfishross]

the motion of the moving media brushing against itself along with the water flow help to knock off all the older bactieria which is a good thing because then the newer younger hungrier bactieria thrive. the media will never look extremely coated just slightly discolored this is why it is more efficient. its practiclly self cleaning!

[Darrell Ward]

The Kaldness media was developed for the waste water treatment industry in Europe, so it's not just another aquarium related "sales gimmick", like so many products on the market these days. Another point is, that since you are highly aerating the media to fluidize it, your dissolved oxygen rate goes way up, and drives off C02. Personally, I don't think I'll ever go back to trickle, and static sump filters again, having discovered how efficient this stuff is at converting ammonia.

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

O.k. I was almost completely convinced until I was thinking through things a little the middle of last night as I was unable to sleep and a new question arose. How is the moving media any better than the traditional trickle style wet/dry filter in terms of sluffing off old bacteria? In the trickle filter the water flows over the media and I would think brushes off the old bio build up. With Kaldnes the media moves instead of the water. I would think the flow past the Kaldnes would actually be slower/less able to knock of old/bad bacteria as the media simply flows with the water. Maybe the slower flow past the media is the good thing about Kaldnes as that allows longer contact time. Any thoughts?

Several points to consider:

1. Kaldness is designed to be a constantly moving media, using aeration. This constant motion/aeration is more than enough to knock off the excess biofilm to keep it "thin".

2. Kaldness is designed to be fully submerged, utilizing the full surface area available of the media. Bioballs only use a fraction of their available surface area due to channeling effects. This channeling effect reduces the overall effective surface area of the bioballs.

3. Using bioballs in their originally designed method, the channeling effect can create a relatively slow velocity over the media, allowing the dead biofilm to build up. Kaldness media, when use as intended, has no channeling issues if the chamber is designed properly.

4. Moving Bed Bio Reactors have been used for years in the commercial aquaculture industry. It is a proven design, and it is all we use when designing/sizing systems:
http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategor...eactor/lsb12/0

-Ryan

[Vee]

Can you use Kaldness media in a Phosban reactor or just a sump?

[Darrell Ward]

I suppose you could on a smaller tank, where you didn't need a large amount of bio media, like a 55 gal. If you put an air stone in the reactor to add oxygen, it should work fine. In fact, round media vessels are much easier to fluidize, because they are no corners that can trap the Kaldness media.

[roundfishross]

I saw a youtube vid where an asian company is manufacturing a filter for koi pond that is basically a pool sand filter packed with kaldness. this thing actually is not fluidized untill you back flush it for cleaning

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

I saw a youtube vid where an asian company is manufacturing a filter for koi pond that is basically a pool sand filter packed with kaldness. this thing actually is not fluidized untill you back flush it for cleaning

There are a few small companies out there doing the same thing. It works ok....The void spaces within the Kaldness (or similar media) is too great to allow for any great degree of fine solids removal. Kaldness is designed as a biomedia, not a combo mechanical/bio media. If you want to use a sand filter body, but not the actual sand, stick with a bead filter (allows for a low head pump). Just my 2 cents.

-Ryan

[Darrell Ward]

I agree, and a bead filter is very effective. I have a small version of one, an Ocean Clear 354, on a 150 gal. domestic discus tank as a stand alone filter. It's hooked to a 1250 gph external pump. The body of this filter is clear, so you can see what's going on inside. 7 lbs. of plastic beads are in the filter, when water is pumped in, the beads rise to the top, with the water being forced thru the beads, and out the top of the filter. The beads act as mechanical, and biological filtration. Cleaning is done by back washing the filter, but on this smaller filter, I have found it much more effective to simply unscrew the lid, stir the media, and drain the resulting dirty water out the drain valve on the filter into a garden hose run out the door.

[roundfishross]

Darrell, how effective is it at pulling out fine particulates? do you have to follow with foam?

[Darrell Ward]

It's pretty effective. The beads rise to the top kinda like a "mat" that the water has to travel through. The particles get trapped under the bead "mat". If you cloud the water for some reason, the water will clear up in a couple or so hours. Water turnover times seem to have an effect on this as well. The faster you turn over the tank, the better it seems to work. I actually had this same filter and pump on a 75 gal. for about 5 years before I put it on the 150 gal., and it worked well enough that I didn't change anything except for longer hoses for the 30" deep tank. It's been on the 150 for about a year and a half. I don't use any foam with it.