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Kaldnes Media Experiment
Thursday, November 10, 2011 12:38 AM
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Dan Undewood of SeaHorseSource.com mentioned liking a biological filtration method referred to as 'Kaldnes Media'. This thread is dedicated to him, and his constant sharing of valuable information. His mention was the first we had heard of it. A google search turned up a bunch of information, including this: www.raingarden.us/kaldnes_bio.pdf
It sounds like it might be the best media to use for biological filtration in a fish-farming application. The self-cleaning feature is a great selling point. We're starting this thread to document our experiences with it.
Whats the best thing to do when you hear about a new idea? Buy a ton of it:   Bean, the cat, figures there are about 6 cubic feet of media in the box. When one first gets the media, it floats. After a few weeks it becomes neutrally buoyant because of the bacteria which attach to it. This is a picture of the media after a few weeks of aging.  We are trying it both as a replacement in a running system, and as new media in freshly started systems. Right now we will show the replacement one, and will add photos of the fresh-starts soon. We wanted to try it in place of our current Live Rock filter, as our LR takes too much cleaning. So we put the kaldnes media in line with the system for a few weeks, and then today, switched the LR with the kaldnes media. Here we are taking the media out of the 20H. A fish-net works great.  Then we took the Live Rock out of the sump of the same system. There were a few bio-balls in there too I guess :-)  We forgot to take any pictures of the buckets that we put the media in. Will try and add some tomorrow. Basically they are just 5gal buckets with holes drilled in them. We found specific airstones that work best for this, will post photos of them soon also. The media can be used in any shape container, but seems to 'tumble' best for us in a round one. It calls for .5cfm per cubic foot of media. We split 1 cubic foot up into three 5 gallon buckets, and used 1 airstone in each bucket that was advertised to flow .2cfm. They seem to work perfectly, so we'll add information about them soon. It is advertised as being able to deal with 1/3lb of food/day/cubic foot. However many people say it works well even at 1lb/day/cubic foot. We feed less than a pound a day to all our grow outs combined, so this particular biofilter should be greatly oversized. Here's a bad, sideways, video of the media after we placed it in the sump. The lighting is dim underneath, sorry!
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Thursday, November 10, 2011 1:14 AM
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This looks like it has the potential to be a great thread! Thanks for starting it, Midnight Mariculture. I saw a post by Dan about this media on another forum, and have been contemplating getting some Kaldness media for my new breeding room build. I'll be watching this thread closely for useful pointers on how to successfully use this filter media in high-density applications to process high bioloads.
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Thursday, November 10, 2011 10:10 AM
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Where did you get the media?
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Thursday, November 10, 2011 10:38 AM
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Thanks for sharing! I have also been wondering about this media after seeing Dan's posts about it.
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Thursday, November 10, 2011 10:43 AM
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Thursday, November 10, 2011 1:16 PM
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some one i used to know had a huge koi tank in their basement and he had used these in his media reactor. but his reactor was about two diameter and 5 feet tall! lol. I heard it worked well, but rumors have it that that tank is no longer in operation. :/
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Thursday, November 10, 2011 1:53 PM
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Ok, so you bought 6CF but used 1CF split into three 5G buckets, right? What size is the system you're using that amount for? Just trying to wrap my head around the necessary quantities needed at $50/CF. 
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Thursday, November 10, 2011 2:11 PM
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That is some potent stuff. 1 cubic foot will handle .3 lbs of food fed per day, the box above 2 full pounds! That's a lot of waste processing in a small space. And koi have no stomach so I am not sure how the uptake % would differ between koi and marine fish.
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Thursday, November 10, 2011 3:50 PM
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Anyone have the link to Dan's Koi pond forum build plans?
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Thursday, November 10, 2011 9:11 PM
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im sitting here laughing and shaking my head as i read this thread me and my partner were just discussing putting the entire salt and fresh rooms on fluidized bed filter made with K1 media actually we decided to go this route due to the high rate of conversion from ammonia to nitrate i will be starting a build thread for the systems in January when i finally get moved out to MO and get a chance to get the tanks all sat up.
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Thursday, November 10, 2011 9:13 PM
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Hello everyone... This is the media we are using at our facility. John has done extensive research on filter design and seems to have hit it on the head as our systems are working fantastic. I will ask him to stop in here and put up a few pics and details of our build. I believe you can see a few pics on our facebook page if you like. Im not sure if its ok to put the link up as we are a business. Please remove this if it is inappropriate check Reef Imports & Hatchery. Im sure he will gladly answer questions and help with your projects.
Sissy President of the Fish Hoarders Association
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Friday, November 11, 2011 9:42 AM
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What would really be space saving for me would be if i could make this in a section of the sump, and not have to have it above the sump or separate from the sump. I have little floor space and not that high for ceilings. Rarely do I have more than 1000 fish on the system, and they don't eat anything close to .3 lb of food daily. 1 cubic foot will more than address my needs.
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Friday, November 11, 2011 10:27 AM
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Great participation! It would be great if you could tell us a little about your designs sissy. We couldn't find too much about it's use in marine systems, and any input would be greatly appreciated. I couldn't find pictures of it on the FB page, but I will look again. Tal, We are using 1 CF for 240gal of grow out. People mention 1CF working for 1lb a day of food (its advertised at 0.3lb/day per CF). We don't have exact numbers, but we feed close to 0.25lb a day to 240gal when the fish get really big. We wanted the filters over-sized though. The 6CF is for all our current grow outs, if we like it. Kathy, I believe a quarter or a third of a cubic foot would be the same ratio of fish to media as we are doing for the grow out you mention. We chose the Kaldnes over bio-balls for the specific reason you mention, it can be used in sump. We will add some pics of different sump-conversion ideas asap.
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Friday, November 11, 2011 12:53 PM
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Hope this works Linda - Here is a video when it was first hooked up: http://www.facebook.com/v...eo.php?v=2267020280774 and pictures of how it is plumbed - http://www.facebook.com/m...49664836122&type=3 I'm very happy with them. The grow-out system is a 225 gallon drum and has 300 liters of media. The broodstock system is a 65 gallon drum with 100 liters of media. The air manifold was bought from Aquatic Ecosystems along with the airstones (1/2" MPT). It requires a good sized air pump to work properly (the further down the manifold is in the water; which needs to sit approximately 3" above the bottom of the container the larger sized air pump required. I make my own food and feed very heavy. Keep in mind if your food contains a high amount of protein, you'll need to increase the amount of media (not go solely on the weight of the food you are feeding - i.e., 1/4 lb, 1/2 lb, etc..) Another tip: The water entering into the Kaldnes filter should be pre-filtered to remove large particles. It works like a charm!
Sissy President of the Fish Hoarders Association
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Friday, November 11, 2011 3:30 PM
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I am using this on my broodstock tanks now. I put individual filters in each compartment instead of in the sump. This way if my return pump goes I will still have filter in the tanks. I am going to try this in my growout also.
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Friday, November 11, 2011 3:45 PM
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I still can´t see the advantage of this product.They are small plastic pieces like bioballs,but light,so they can be tumbled like a bead or sand fluidized filter. If we want to have the biofilm well oxigenated,I wonder why don´t we just put them in a wet-dry,as any other trickling media? 
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Friday, November 11, 2011 10:04 PM
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I think the advantage Luis is that they should never need to be removed for cleaning like bio balls and other media. And with the tumbling action it probably shears off the bacteria so its constantly keeping a thin, young, healthy population of bacteria. And by stirring them you are exposing them to more water to process. Just a thought.
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Friday, November 11, 2011 11:13 PM
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I hate to row against the flow and if you all are so satisfied with it,it ought to be good  But still...they are small plastic pieces,designed for maximum surface and flow,same as any other bio balls,bio wheels etc. A bioball tower never clogs nor need to be cleaned if water entering it is mechanically filtered. The self cleaning action you describe belongs to the fluidized filters,which use much smaller particles (sand grains)which offer a very high surface/volume ratio.
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Friday, November 11, 2011 11:29 PM
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 Originally Posted by luis a m I hate to row against the flow and if you all are so satisfied with it,it ought to be good But still...they are small plastic pieces,designed for maximum surface and flow,same as any other bio balls,bio wheels etc. A bioball tower never clogs nor need to be cleaned if water entering it is mechanically filtered. The self cleaning action you describe belongs to the fluidized filters,which use much smaller particles (sand grains)which offer a very high surface/volume ratio. Those were my thoughts too. I've been tagging along to see if anyone thought the same, or had specific details on how this product differed.
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Re:Kaldnes Media Experiment
Saturday, November 12, 2011 5:01 AM
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Guys, this isn't something new. This product has been around for quite some time on the freshwater side. There is a reason it has one of the highest Bio filtration rates of anything out there. And that is the reason why why koi and aquacuture facilities use this product. Also bio balls , no matter how well you mechanically clean the water going to them, get fouled. Mostly from bacterial populations growing and dying off. In this process with them being moved around, it increases the surface area being exposed to freshwater polluted water. I don't think this thread was meant as an "hey everyone go get this product", it was meant as "hey look i'm trying something different and it works great for high bio load uses" !
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