K1 Kaldness media...yay or nay?

[jjordan1904]

I saw these at two separate LFS stores and started asking questions my main guy swears by this this K1 media stuff

As far as I understand it they simply collect beneficial bacteria. Im guessing this would be good for tanks with minimal rock? Or am I way off?

Its cheap and doesn't take much space. I got a huge bag for $20. My tank is only 120g and I used less than half the bag. A few handfuls worth.

There's several videos on YouTube setting it up with just a soda bottle and an air tube. I glued together an acrylic box with some drilled holes and have the return from my biopellet reactor flowing in to keep things tumbling.

Has anybody else had any experience with these good or bad? Am I wasting my time? Overkill?

Im trying to start up a reef tank. Only a couple months old. Hopefully will be sps dominated.

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[robert]

I've never heard of this untill your post. I watched a couple of youtube videos....

Sort of like self cleaning bio-balls.

I'd try them...looks kinda cool

 

[jjordan1904]

I've had it running for a few weeks now. haven't seen any major difference in anything yet. but well see. my tanks still fairly new anyway and still got plenty of coral I need to add.

 

[Maximizer]

Now that you have a little bit of run time on it, how is it working out? Run into any issues?

 

[jjordan1904]

So far so good. Everything is really growing well. I have seen no negative effects. So I guess that's a good thing. All my parameters are in check

 

[Maximizer]

Are you running pretty minimalistic rock, how much do you have in your tank?

 

[Rybren]

This stuff is really popular with koi keepers (or it was ~15 yrs ago when I kept koi). It is generally used in a fluidized bed. The media tumbles and bumps into each other, thus knocking the detrius off (or so the theory goes). Never bothered trying it myself.

 

[Maximizer]

I'm pretty sure its still popular with freshwater. Just never heard of it used in the marine world

 

[gar732]

I've used small reactors in my clownfish grow out tanks with good results. With that many fish in a tank and feeding so much water quality am can go down quickly. I'm happy with the results I've had and plan to go with a large reactor that will be my primary source of bio filtration in the grow out system I'm building. I don't really know if it would be that much of an improvement in a reef unless you have a very minimalist scape.

 

[jjordan1904]

ya I have plenty of rock (I think) here's a pic. I'm here in the Chicago burbs and I've noticed more and more of the LFS using these as well. My tank is still fairly new but everything is looking and growing fairly well. I'm not sure if its due to this or not.

If its not broke don't fix it so ill just let it run for now.

 

[Trailermann]

I have been using a kaldness-like medium in a dedicated reactor made by Bashsea. Concept was appealing to me since I am not using much live rock. The model 8-18 Bio-Reactor is the one I choose. Seems to be doing the job.

 

[Joelgregorywilson]

Hey how's the K1 Kaldnes going with your reef? Is it fluidized by air stone or pump? I'm starting a 550L cube reef, and I like the bioreactor/k1 kaldnes moving bed. Great idea for a marine tank

 

[jjordan1904]

Hey how's the K1 Kaldnes going with your reef? Is it fluidized by air stone or pump? I'm starting a 550L cube reef, and I like the bioreactor/k1 kaldnes moving bed. Great idea for a marine tank

Hey

As far as I can tell its working great. I wouldn't call it a game changer. But I can tell you I also have a Frag tank with same lights and similar setup/parameters etc minus the k1 media.

The pieces I transfer over from my display to the Frag tank tend to grow slower. Could be wrong but I assume it's because of the K1 since that's really the only major difference.

The stuff is so cheap anyways and I run it off just a small air pump doesn't hurt to give it a try