For those who are familiar with K1 media...

[edsbeaker]

My 140G reef has somewhat minimalistic rock work. When I set up my tank, I felt I needed about 50 lbs of additional live rock in my sump for additional bio-filtration. I hate how much space it is taking up and the difficulty of siphoning out the sump to keep it all clean. I'd like to eliminate all the live rock in the sump, but replace it with a more efficient option, and was considering K1 media. I like this idea because it constantly moves around so it never needs to be cleaned.

I have two TLF 550 reactors (that nobody wants to buy) so I'm wondering if, 1st, this would work for K1 media and 2nd, would one (or if necessary two) hold enough media to equal the bio efficiency of 50 lbs of live rock? Any drawbacks that I'm not aware of??? Would it be too full to fill it up half way with media, or would there not be enough space for the tumbling?

The reactor is 4" in diameter X 12" tall.

View attachment 18598

 

[KeishaKornbread]

Those will not work for K1. Nor will the Two Little Fishies Reactors or the CPR Tumbler. You should have mentioned your interest when you and the hubby were over. I could have let you take a gander at my undertank setup.

 

[yogoshio]

Couldn't the tumbler be used with a mj1200 with air inlet? As long as its oxygenated and spins it works?

Or maybe mod the tumbler and direct the upflow so that it makes a swirl effect in the chamber?

 

[Lil BamBam]

Those will not work for K1. Nor will the Two Little Fishies Reactors or the CPR Tumbler. You should have mentioned your interest when you and the hubby were over. I could have let you take a gander at my undertank setup.

Why wouldn't it work? Is it because it needs air?

 

[edsbeaker]

Those will not work for K1. Nor will the Two Little Fishies Reactors or the CPR Tumbler. You should have mentioned your interest when you and the hubby were over. I could have let you take a gander at my undertank setup.

Thanks Walt, but I had no interest then. As usual my mind only gets ideas after I have already left the house of someone that has implemented that idea, and it becomes incredibly inconvenient to go back to see it in action.

What type of reactor or set-up would be needed instead, and can this media substitute for a good deal of live rock?

 

[edsbeaker]

Couldn't the tumbler be used with a mj1200 with air inlet? As long as its oxygenated and spins it works?

Or maybe mod the tumbler and direct the upflow so that it makes a swirl effect in the chamber?

Why wouldn't it work? Is it because it needs air?

I had read that as long as it is fluidized it works. Does fluidized just mean being suspended and moved around, or is air necessary?

 

[KeishaKornbread]

Couldn't the tumbler be used with a mj1200 with air inlet? As long as its oxygenated and spins it works?

Or maybe mod the tumbler and direct the upflow so that it makes a swirl effect in the chamber?

This is the problem with the tumbler. It's made to push water evenly upwards. Reactors are made the same way. You need to mod them so there is uneven flow to allow the water to "swirl". Flow has to be just right.

 

[KeishaKornbread]

Why wouldn't it work? Is it because it needs air?

In a reactor like these, the flow pushes everything up. They will push the K1 media up and make it clump. You need some room in there for water & K1 to also flow down.

 

[KeishaKornbread]

I had read that as long as it is fluidized it works. Does fluidized just mean being suspended and moved around, or is air necessary?

Having an airstone isn't necessary but you will want your water to be well aerated or oxygenated.

 

[edsbeaker]

In a reactor like these, the flow pushes everything up. They will push the K1 media up and make it clump. You need some room in there for water & K1 to also flow down.

OK. That makes sense now. The media would just be forced to the top of the reactor without the swirling effect to move it in all directions.

Having an airstone isn't necessary but you will want your water to be well aerated or oxygenated.

Am I correct in thinking this would be a good alternative to all that live rock that I'd like to replace? Any downsides?

Also, if it's not too complicated can you tell me how you did yours?

 

[LemontReefer]

It can be used in a moving bed, static or canister filter. Depending how its used different bacteria will colonize, kinda depends what you are wanting the K1 to do to your system...It does lower Oxygen in the system so would recommend air pumps, hydrogen peroxide reactor, or otherwise getting more Oxygen into your system... A little too aggressive for my setup.

 

[MMreef]

Hi Marilyn, have you considered Siporax? That's what I am using in my set up to make up for lock of LR. There is a lot of very successful reef tanks with minimal or no LR at all using this media. It doesn't have tumble or be cleaned, it needs to be in slow flow in clean part of sump ( mine sits in return chamber with small power head for flow) after all mechanical filtration. It works great as a biological filtration , taking care of Ammonia,Nitrite and Nitrate. I was looking at K1 media, but still not convinced it does anything for reducing Nitrate, despite few people using it and claiming it does. Even their website only claims it reduces Ammonia and Nitrite only. IMO it lacks surface for anaerobic bacteria that consumes Nitrate and converts it to Nitrogen. I guess I will become believer once I see somebody use this media with very little of LR or none at all ( not enough to handle the bioload) and K1 will do the rest. Most users have enough LR in their tanks to take care of biological filtration. Do some research on Siporax. Just my two cents. .

P.S. K1 users, don't hate on this post, it is just my opinion and might be totally wrong on this. If it works for you, great.

 

[Herbie]

I believe the tumble comes from the inlet and the outlet being next to each other on one end of the vessel so that the water has to take a lap to get out. Any sort of canister filter or laminar flow reactor will simply create a lump on one end. That might work for some LR surface area, but i believe you might acheive mostly anaerobic biomass and have similar issues to hose experienced by bioball users.

I have one of Will Lutman's small tanks and have slowly built up the K1 while removing the live rock. It took a long time for me to see any result and I had a bad algae outbreak when I took too much rock out too fast, but i am now seeing extensive colonization on the k1 media and have no algae. the tank has sps, lps and zoas and all are fairing well now that things have stabilized. This has been an experiment for a larger build I am working on and I will definitely be incorporating a media tumbler in that system after this experience.

 

[jrpark22000]

Those will not work for K1. Nor will the Two Little Fishies Reactors or the CPR Tumbler. You should have mentioned your interest when you and the hubby were over. I could have let you take a gander at my undertank setup.

I agree and disagree. I run K1 in media reactors and also in a hob AC70. It will not tumble and does clump at the top of the reactor w/o modification. I simply inject a large volume of air from a super luft upstream of the reactor into the incoming water supply. I then adjust the water flow and air flow to maximize tumble and preventing clumping. I control air and water flows with inline ball valves. With some trial I am very sure I could get media to tumble properly or acceptably in a TLF reactor. The key piece is the large volume of air. I could not get this with a standard luft, I had to upgrade to a super luft.

 

[jrpark22000]

I was looking at K1 media, but still not convinced it does anything for reducing Nitrate, despite few people using it and claiming it does. Even their website only claims it reduces Ammonia and Nitrite only. IMO it lacks surface for anaerobic bacteria that consumes Nitrate and converts it to Nitrogen. I guess I will become believer once I see somebody use this media with very little of LR or none at all ( not enough to handle the bioload) and K1 will do the rest. Most users have enough LR in their tanks to take care of biological filtration. Do some research on Siporax. Just my two cents. .

P.S. K1 users, don't hate on this post, it is just my opinion and might be totally wrong on this. If it works for you, great.

I fully agree, K1 does nothing for nitrate. You must still have Enough LR to house anaerobic nitrate fixing bacteria.

 

[Siebo]

I had read that as long as it is fluidized it works. Does fluidized just mean being suspended and moved around, or is air necessary?

What if you run the reactor in reverse. the flow would come from the top down then. Just a thought!

 

[jrpark22000]

What if you run the reactor in reverse. the flow would come from the top down then. Just a thought!

Even with aged media which is more neutrally buoyant, it still clumps. I really hate the sound of the air pump and the noise from the media crashing into each other in my reactor. I ended up wrapping the reactor in 2 layers of foam rubber floor mats to quiet it down. I wish I could find a way to remove the air but after several trials and changes I cannot get good tumble w/o it.

 

[pringles]

I am using 1 litter of K1 for my discuss tank, they did reduce the ammonia, nitrate & nitrites. I diy by some drink water bottles & air pumps , with TLF u can converse into the chamber.

 

[DD]

I'm actually going to build a top down reactor out of clear pvc. I'll put a valve on the top side to tailor the flow to a perfect level and see how that goes. I'll post pics whenever I get around to building it.

It may be a complete failure, but it's worth a shot.

 

[yogoshio]

I think the main thing K1 doesn't do is become a nitrate factory since the old bacteria dies and falls off because of the tumbling, and then gets sucked out by the skimmer. In this sense it will reduce nitrates when compared to things like bioballs and the like.