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  1. #1

    Quantity K1 required.

    I am building a moving bed filter from a 150 litre drum to go in my filter house. My pond is approx 7000 litres (it is due to be fibreglassed shortly so the end of my build is in sight).

    I am intending 5-6 fish. What quantity of K1 would be suitable for this set up please?



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  3. #2
    Senior Member Rank = Adult Champion Twhitenosugar's Avatar
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    I'd put as much as you can fit in - based on the max being 60% of water volume. The more bio you have the better, especially if you add more fish at some point in the future.

    If I was in your position I'd start by working out where the waterline would be in the drum - a rough guess would do, but allow for a drop when the punp is on if running gravity.

    With that you can work out what the likely volume of water will be in the drum. Then work out what 60% of that is and I'd use that figure to know how many litres of plastic media to buy. That's how I calculated how much I could use (which is 250l on a 12.5k l pond with 15 koi in).

    Some may say buy some to start off with as you can always add more later. But k1 takes so pigging long to mature that whenever you'd need the extra bio, you'd be waiting an age for the new stuff to mature. I say chuck in as much as you can/can afford from the outset.

    I used bio cell from coastal koi, which seems to be an identical knock off of k1 but cheaper.



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    13,000L fibreglassed raised pond with window

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    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Agree k1 and helx take ages. PP new media first. To speed it up. But it still takes a long time.
    Mine took 18 months.
    Fred

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  7. #4
    Im a bit torn, I could fit around 80 litres based on that calculation but as the price for smaller quantities is so high, it would make sense to buy 25 or 50 litre packs. This means 75 litres which is just under my max, or 100 litres which means i am buying more than I need. Will be doing the PP.

  8. #5
    Depending on where you are I still have around 200 litres going spare.


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  10. #6
    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by freddyboy View Post
    Agree k1 and helx take ages. PP new media first. To speed it up. But it still takes a long time.
    Mine took 18 months.
    Fred

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    Is that because it’s in your quarantine tank so doesn’t get enough, or any contact with water?

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  12. #7
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Djstiles999 View Post
    Is that because it’s in your quarantine tank so doesn’t get enough, or any contact with water?
    No mate. I have a nexus 320 with 320 lts of mixed k1 and hel x 13. The hel x 13 I added 2 years later. On main pond. And the
    Qt matured right away. As I had mature stuff from main pond. It just takes time lol.
    Like I say it took 18 months. To be trusted
    Without testing the water parameters.
    5000gallons with last count 63 fish.

    What makes you say not enough dwell time in qt grow on.
    Fred

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  13. #8
    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    Must have misread the rumours, thought finishing your QT was one of the labours of Hercules

  14. #9
    Senior Member Rank = Kyusai Koiz's Avatar
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    Hi Grommett, Not sure if this is helpful, but just in case, this is a table I recently put together to compare the performance and prices of the two best known moving medias from Oase and EA. I've just set up a new ProfiClear which came with 40L of Hel X 13. Previously I was running my 11,500L pond with 10 Koi on 50L of K1 in a Nexus with Draco. I upped that by anther 50L in July last year, on advice from EA, as I was getting Nitrates at 40 to 50 constantly. I think it did help a bit, but my Nitrates are high in my water supply anyhow (20 - 40), so it's a constant battle as I'm plant free so I’m now Considering Anoxic, but it would have to be within my pond. Anyhow, I PP'd the new Hel X and started fishless cycling it as per Manky's guide using Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride. Did this for 2 weeks before the fish were returned to the pond on the 24th June. I’ve been amazed at how quickly the Hel X has matured in just 23 days. Within 24 hours in the drum it was all boiling nicely, and started colouring up within 7 days. It’s working OK, my Ammonia is rarely anything but 0, Nitrite bit of an issue at 0.1 to 0.25 and Nitrate the usual 30 – 40, so I’m doing 10% trickle changes every couple of days. I’m hoping to add the PondPads to bring my g/day capability back in line with what I had with the 100L K1.

    Interestingly, Oase do not recommended mixing Hel X and PondPads in the Compact M, but having spoken to Oase Tech, it seems this is more to do with the time it takes for the Pads to sink, boil and mature (6-8 weeks) which would stop the Hel X boiling in such a small environment as the Compact M. To avoid this, I’m going to mature the Pads in a separate bin after PPing them, then add once they are boiling.

    This was an interesting thread that talked about PondPads: K1 Media or Look Alike and from this I’ve watched lots of YouTube vids about Mutag BioChips which has helped me understand that these different types of media allow a more diverse community of helpers to develop so I’m hoping that by having both Hel X and Pads, I’ll get a healthier pond as, looking at my table, you’ll see there’s very little in the actual cost per g/day, but the real benefit of the Pads is how much less you need and therefore if space is tight for your filter, these win hands down.

    Oase vs EA Media 04.07.20.JPG

    Of interest, I have not been able to find any info about what the K1 Micro supposedly processes in 24 hours, so would be grateful if anyone could tell me this so I can complete this comparison.

    Whilst chatting with Oase about the PondPads, I was told about their Bio Kickstart Premium which is their alternative to EA Pure+ Pond Gel and AquaSource Filter Gel – both of which I’ve been using. So, I decided to do a comparison of those too and was shocked that EA and AS don’t actually tell you the volume of bacteria per L, whereas Oase state 50 billion / ml. Oase gel comes in 4 separate vials, which I can’t help but feel is a better way to be packaging live bacteria, as surely once the tub is opened, there is going to be a level of degradation. Anyway, the table says it all … the Oase product - for once - is actually the cheapest! Again – if anyone can advise what the volume of bac / ml is for the EA and AS products I’d love to hear. I'm now giving the Bio Kickstart Premium a trial.

    Filter Gel Comparison 04.07.20.JPG

    And finally … for anyone reading this that has not used filter gels before – there are a few tips (that I wish I'd known back in 2017!) to make sure what you are adding has the best chance of colonising moving bed media 1) add to media, stir in well, but turn pump off for min 1 hour so bac has a chance to stick before circulating around pond 2) turn air off for several hours, again, to encourage initial colonisation, as too much collision when boiling can slow this down 3) keep the UV (and / or Ozone) off for as long as possible as any circulating bacs will be zapped by it. Any bacs that do not take up home on the media will hopefully find a home in the pond or pipework, so keeping UV off will give them that chance 4) all these gels work better at higher temps. Using them in winter is a waste of money!

    Do any of these gels really work and if so, which is best? Not sure anyone will ever be able to answer that without proper laboratory testing under controlled conditions, but knowing these things will hopefully give whatever you add the best chance of success
    11,440L Raised Pond, BD, Oase ProfiClear, Bitron 55W, 2x10k Aquaforte Varios, Skimmer to Waterblade

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  16. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by bigcarpchaser View Post
    Depending on where you are I still have around 200 litres going spare.


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    I live in Bournemouth.

  17. #11
    Prob a bit far to make it worth collecting by the time you add in the cost plus petrol etc.
    I’m up near Camberley


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