Kaldnes Media Experiment

I have been adding a little more media each week . The first one I did I added to much to start and it did not tumble. So I add a little more each week and now all (4) filters are tumbling.

This stuff looks cool.  I have an old skimmer in the garage that I an DIY into a reactor for this.  Anyone see an issues with running this on a reef tank?  I can't think of any. I might end up doing two reactors, 1 for my breeding setup and the other for the reef tank.

Any update on how this is working? I am considering K1 Kaldes or Pond Matrix.
It also seems like it is cheaper to buy K1 from a Koi supply house, not sure if there is a difference. 

I think the idea with a reef tank is to just use Live Rock for biological filtration as it does it a little slower.  Ammonia feeds corals I think?  At least at low levels.
 
The Media is working swimmingly.  One thing we learned was that you have to use it in a reactor, or in a somewhat tall sump.  The circular flow patterns in a bucket work best when the water is at least as high as the bucket is wide (at least that is our experience).
 
Sorry about being slow with updates and pictures.  'Tis the busy season and we haven't spent much time on the systems other than water changes and cleaning the filter bags.  I do promise I'll take pics as we do adjust things though.
 
 

Finally got around to uploading these:
Theyre about 2ft high, water flows in at the top and out up the riser.



 
Insitu:



 
these take about 4-6 litres of K1. Im using a Koi/pond air stone (the big ball type) but these seem to be degrading, so will likely change to a silicone leaky hose type.
 

Great pics! Thanks for posting them, especially with them in action!

wow nice setup!

RLTW

180 Gallon Mixed Reef

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:8

Does anyone have updates to share?

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Media sale! http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/5294/Kaldnes-Media?utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=Subscription%20Master%20List&utm_campaign=Biomedia%20Feb%20Sale

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Um, my friend at the zebrafish farm has a surplus of kaldnes.  Let me know if you are contemplating buying some.  He would love to sell off the surplus, and it'll be a good price.

I might be interested.  Give me till the weekend and I will let you know

I bought some from AES and have extra for sale if you want some locally Mike.

-Adam

How much do you have?

I bought the amount they gave me for $52.
 
Its like 1x1x1... You think you actually need a lot more than you really do. Its amazing how efficient this stuff is.

-Adam

I just put 1/2 a cubic foot in my sump. Yay, progress!

Any updates? I'm planning my new grow-out system now and deciding on filtration options.
 
I'be been using this in 1.75L reactors in my current systems. Not sure how big a difference it's making. The media hasn't taken on the yellow/brown coloration but everything seems fine where I'm using it.
 
I'd like to avoid using skimmers in the new systems if possible. 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

 
Why would you not want to use skimmers?

Because it is more equipment to buy and run.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Made a decision today on my breeding setup.  I have decided to go skimmerless and run only K1 in my sump.  I think I mentioned it before in this thread that I have an old ASM g6 which I am going to convert into a reactor.  I post pictures when I have some time to finish it.
 

There is no connection between the skimmer and K1 Mike and Tal.
 
K1 is a biofilter, while a skimmer removes excess bacteria, detritus and food.
 
Just a FYI as both of you used the point of "no skimmer with K1", but again there is no overlap in the uses of a skimmer and K1. (A skimmer is not a biofilter, such that a biofilter can't skim.)

-Adam

Adam,  I get what you are saying. What Tal and I are saying is that there could be more cost effective method to provide filtration than using a skimmer

Essentially, the purpose of a skimmer is to low bioload by removing organics before they are processed into nitrate.  Another tool for the job is an ATS which doesn't lower bioload, but instead exports nitrate.  In the end, they do the same job in different ways.  According to the electrical cost in my area, it costs me about $60 per year to run a skimmer and the ATS costs about $50 per year to run an ATS that will export the resulting nitrate from about 3 cubes of food per day.   I think using both is the creme de la creme, and neither are of significant cost. 
 
I've seen how much more work it is to maintain reef tanks without skimmers, I wouldn't want to maintain broodstock or growout tanks without skimmers.  Skimmer realls aren't that expensive to buy (especially secondhand), and they surely aren't expensive to run if you pay attention to buy skimmers with economical pumps.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

I understand where they are coming from though, sometimes the work of keeping the skimmer working right & cleaning it isn't worth the extra water change volume. The non-relation is true, but oddly enough I run Kaldnes and no-skimmer on every fish system we have (not that there is anything wrong with a skimmer).
 
Haven't updated anything in a long time, sorry!  Our new favorite way to use the Kaldnes is: to put it in a 5g bucket, with a 0.3cfm airstone in the bottom center, and holes drilled on the sides near the bottom.  Then we zip-tie styrofoam floats around the top of the bucket.  One annoying thing we found was that Kaldnes likes a constant water level in order to tumble properly.  The floating bucket design helps us, as we don't have ATO.  Also, sometimes we overflow a sump, an if the bucket floats, you don't have a million little plastic pieces to pick up.  We've done that more than once :-)
 
An advance version puts the airstone in a 3" tube at the bottom center, drawing water in from the sump like an airlift into the media.
 
Here are a couple pics of them in our sumps.  Pardon the non-aesthetic nature of the setup.

Feel free to scold me, it's been a while since I have read the entire thread, but a crazy thought here. What would happen if you just added Kaldnes to a skimmer body and continued to run it as normal? Would you get the best of both or would it render both useless?

That actually might be a very good idea....... hummmm
 
You'd need a large skimmer body though....  Has me thinking now...

-Adam

I think the Kaldnes media would end up in the skimmer cup.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

The problem I see with putting it in a skimmer, besides what Mindy said, is that only a certain percentage of water will be going through it. 100% of the water in my system goes through the media chamber after it passes through a filter sock.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I have an old Euroreef 180 that made me think of it. I figure I could put at least a gallon of them in it.

That RS-180 is a good skimmer though!    That's what I'm running on my broodstock system.  It got the boot off my reef tank because the dang EuroReefs are so loud.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

I didn't think about it riding on the foam into the cup. On the flow through, I thought it was just like a reactor where a small percentage went through. I guess the minimum flow rate required to be most efficient might depend on how much media you have which would affect the conversion rate. I have read articles in the past about plumbing the overflow direct to the skimmer input. Would a recirculating skimmer solve this? Assuming the media stays put.

I have never ran it yet Mindy but its good to know you like it. I bought it a while back but never got it installed. Bought it as a RS-80, needless to say a nice surprise when the measurements didn't match up!

Great Thread.  We have been using the K1 media for about 9 years now.  Our fry systems are made up of a 90 gallon round tub with a 20 gal long tank as a sump.  In the sump, we have a basket with bioballs in it, blue bonded media on top and a micron bag zip tied to the drain pipe.  We also run a skimmer and then the K1 media we put into a 3 gal carbuoy with holes drilled into the side about 3/4 of the way up.  The return pump has a Tee so part of the water returns to the tank through a micron canister filter and part goes into the top of the carbuoy.  This churns it up pretty good.  You can also add an airline.  With this setup we have kept up to 600 to 700 seahorses up to about 3 to 3 1/2 inches in size with no issues with ammonia or nitrites.  I have fed up to a 1/4 of lb of frozen mysis per feeding in this system.  We feed up to 5 to 7 times a day.  
 
Dan 

Here is mine in my new growout system sump:

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Dan W:  Yeah, the EuroReef skimmers are good, but are somewhat fussy compared to the newer models on the market.  I love my SWC skimmers, but I won't buy another one now that the owner of SWC is a convicted smuggler (and still somehow still in business). 
 
Re Dan U's comments:  Wow, that is some very efficient media!  It sure would help in compact sumps.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Where did you get the green tub. Does it allow for good turning of the media

Got it at the dollar store. Seems to be working fine.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

How big are the holes in the basket. Do they escape the basket?

I drilled holes that are slightly smaller than the media.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

between deniballs and a k1 reactor it sure does almost eliminate water changes

So, I've my two reactors running for over a year now in my broodstock systems and I've noticed that the media has started to get stuck at the top. I shake the bottles around a bit and it starts spinning again but ends up back at the top after a while. Any idea what's going on here?
 
Am I not getting enough airflow to keep the media tumbling? Is there not enough nutrients in the water to keep the bacteria fed? I wouldn't think it's the later since I still feed a lot and aiptasia grow like weeds. I don't have a fresh nitrate kit so I haven't tested for that in a while but I have Berghia in one tank that are doing fine and I've heard they don't do well with higher nitrate levels... Ideas?

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."