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  • Results 1 to 16 of 16

    Thread: K1 Media Maturity Question

    1. #1
      SteveE is offline Senior Member
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      K1 Media Maturity Question

      I just built a DIY moving bed filter using K2 media (about the same size as K1 but with a 5 spoke inner design as opposed to 4 spoke with a bigger overall surface area) in a 30 gallon barrel.

      I have an EazyPod with K1 media in it (couple of years old) and a Helix bed filter with K3 media in it (about a year old).

      My DIY filter has 2 cubic feet (about 56 litres) of the K2 in it that is now three weeks old.

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      The attached picture shows the K2 at the bottom left and it is the lightest color of the media with a green coating starting to appear on it.

      The K1 to the left has a very dark brown color on one of the pieces and a darker green and more dense covering on the second piece.

      The K3 (larger media) also has a denser green covering.


      The K3 in the helix is the same green color / density as this piece.

      The K1 in the EazyPod is just a dirty white color, so I assume not much of a bio colony due to it being largely a mechanical filter in my case. It is fed by the bottom drain before an external pump -> MC50 -> EVO 55 -> Helix moving bed waterfall filter.

      I seeded the DIY filter with some K1 from the EazyPod (a few hand fulls over about a two week period) and about a dozen or so pieces of K3 from the Helix.

      I have never had any of my media turn the dark brown color before, is this normal and is this good? I have seen pictures of K1 etc... being a light to dark tea color. Is the green color showing a good bio film or is that just algae and the bio filter is not working efficiently?

      My pond is pretty heavily populated with 25 Koi in about 4400 gallons with filtration. I added the additional bio filter due to having a struggle to keep my ammonia readings at 0.

      When I re-did the pond about a year ago, I added the Helix moving bed filter waterfall with the advertising stating it could process the waste produced by something like 1 1/2 lbs of food. I started to wonder about this recently and with only 15 Litres of media in it, didn't really see how this was possible. They recently updated the information to indicate 1 lb and have now updated the information on the filter to indicate it can process the waste of 1/3 lb of food daily. Based on the info I thought I had plenty of bio, but make sure you check your info whenever you can. According to the EA website, 50 Litres of K1 can process the waste for about 0.55 lbs of food daily.

      Anyway, hopefully I have the bio covered now with the addition of the

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    2. #2
      PunaTom is offline Member
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      should not be green protect from the light. should be some shade of tan. I use k2 also it takes several months to get started good

    3. #3
      SteveE is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by PunaTom View Post
      should not be green protect from the light. should be some shade of tan. I use k2 also it takes several months to get started good
      So the piece that is really dark brown (middle piece on the bottom row), is that good or bad?

    4. #4
      CrazyKoiWoman69's Avatar
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      Quote Originally Posted by SteveE View Post
      So the piece that is really dark brown (middle piece on the bottom row), is that good or bad?
      The brown is good was probably tan first. But may need to be replaced?
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    5. #5
      SteveE is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by CrazyKoiWoman69 View Post
      The brown is good was probably tan first. But may need to be replaced?
      You don't replace this type of media.

      The media was a dirty white when first placed in the filter, it came from a 2 year old filter and has turned that color since being in the new DIY moving bed filter. As originally mentioned a few hand fulls were added over a couple of weeks to hopefully give the new media a boost and help speed up the creation of the bio colony in the filter.

    6. #6
      koiman1950's Avatar
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      Tan to dark brown is best. Tan will show when there is an overabundance of media (like too much) and the dark brown is somewhat at the opposite end of the spectrum, meaning barely enough based on stocking density/feed rate. The green is really nothing more than some algae growing on the media, but no colonization of the media by bio bacteria-yet! I think, from what you've explained (quite well I might add) is that you just haven't given the media enough time yet, and your feeding regimen hasn't ramped up to summer conditions, which, at this time of year, is a good thing, unless you've kinda jumped the gun on that.
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    7. #7
      Marilyn's Avatar
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      Is all of that kind of media the dark brown or just some of it?

      It looks like the particulate build up isn't uniform on that piece. This leads me to believe that either the water going into that filter isn't as clean of particulates as it might be and/or there isn't enough aeration to churn it.
      My K1 never looks quite like that. It's very uniform in coloring and darkens up the heavier I feed which is summer, of course.

      Last question, do you purge that filter every so often? Bio film slough can be considerable and I like to do that with my Nexus at least once a month. That probably helps keep mine the uniform color.

      Still learning as I go but y'all can call me Marilyn

    8. #8
      SteveE is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by Marilyn View Post
      Is all of that kind of media the dark brown or just some of it?

      It looks like the particulate build up isn't uniform on that piece. This leads me to believe that either the water going into that filter isn't as clean of particulates as it might be and/or there isn't enough aeration to churn it.
      My K1 never looks quite like that. It's very uniform in coloring and darkens up the heavier I feed which is summer, of course.

      Last question, do you purge that filter every so often? Bio film slough can be considerable and I like to do that with my Nexus at least once a month. That probably helps keep mine the uniform color.
      The media is from a new DIY moving bed filter that is only about a month old, the K1 was introduced from an EazyPod to try and kick start the bio. Only a few pieces are that color & the K1 was added at various times over a two week period, about a hand full at a time.

      The filter is a 30 gallon barrel with a 12" long air stone being fed by an EA 70 air pump (getting about 75%) of the airflow and the media is churning very well.

    9. #9
      Marilyn's Avatar
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      Since it's just a few pieces like that I wouldn't be concerned. If all the media developed that way it would be more concerning.

      Still learning as I go but y'all can call me Marilyn

    10. #10
      PunaTom is offline Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by Marilyn View Post
      Is all of that kind of media the dark brown or just some of it?

      It looks like the particulate build up isn't uniform on that piece. This leads me to believe that either the water going into that filter isn't as clean of particulates as it might be and/or there isn't enough aeration to churn it.
      My K1 never looks quite like that. It's very uniform in coloring and darkens up the heavier I feed which is summer, of course.

      Last question, do you purge that filter every so often? Bio film slough can be considerable and I like to do that with my Nexus at least once a month. That probably helps keep mine the uniform color.
      you nailed it. I agree except a well designed well aerated biochamber with a good boil of convection currents keeping 100% of bio media moving well needs no maintenance at all

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    11. #11
      PunaTom is offline Member
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Size:  151.6 KB This design of mine creates a good center convection current up the center and back down the sides. This unit sets in the pond.Name:  002.jpg
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Size:  43.6 KB This is the mechanical part of the system that also flows into bio chamber Name:  007.jpg
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Size:  55.6 KB this is the protein skimmer running off of the vertical air relief pipe of the airlift for mechanical filter. Bio chamber is powered with a pondmaster ap-100 and matala disk for airlift for mechanical filter is powered by pondmaster ap-60. no need for any cleaning in bio chamber with wild boil with even colored k2

    12. #12
      Blue Tac Cube is offline Senior Member
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      As stated by others above you need to keep the sun light out of this chamber, I had to cover my chamber last year as all the K1 had lots of algal growth and it was preventing the media doing its job, chamber now has a cover.

    13. #13
      davidjensen's Avatar
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      I too made a DIY moving bed filter. I have the K3 on the outside of the inner bucket and K1 inside the bucket. 3 air stones keep the K1 moving. If sunlight gets into the media they will grow algae. No sun light no algae.
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      Need more Koi

    14. #14
      SteveE is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by davidjensen View Post
      I too made a DIY moving bed filter. I have the K3 on the outside of the inner bucket and K1 inside the bucket. 3 air stones keep the K1 moving. If sunlight gets into the media they will grow algae. No sun light no algae.
      Is that picture recent, how old is the media in the filter? Mine looks about that color now after 3 weeks

    15. #15
      PunaTom is offline Member
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      here is my boil abit more of a boil than needed but with the 6 inch uplift tube it has to be. My next filter I will stick with a 4 inch tube so as to use smaller pump to power.

    16. #16
      SteveE is offline Senior Member
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      Everything is cool...

      Ammonia & Nitrite at 0 now. Media churning nicely and fish happy

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