K1 - K3 - K Chips ?

[MysticKoi]

Quote: Bill, how many square feet of surface in a single N- unit on average

Well, I can copy and paste with the best of 'em!

K1 = 800m2 total surface area, with 500 m2 protected.
K3 = 584m2 total, with 500 protected.
BioChip = ? total, with 1402m2 protected.

Kind Regards,
Bill

[JasPR]

I really wanted to know how much surface area is available to bacteria in a fully loaded nitritech filter when filled with k-1?

But I'm also not sure what 'protected area' means? I do know what YOU mean when you say it, that it is an area that is not subjected to the force and current of a fluidized system. But then again, all bacteria house on the contact points with other bacteria house, and all plastic media of the barrel design, as well all all ceramic 'noodle' media, has 'quiet space' in them? It is called void space in Jmat, matala and plastic media. No one has ever marketed this as a PLUS? Other than to say that water can flow over all points and allow biofilm to grow. Thus using all its surface space for biofilm performance. Maybe they should, unless I'm missing something? And IF quite spaces are the domain of special 'other creatures' is this area then lost to biofilm, thus reducing the total surface space of biofilm from the quoted statistics? See what I mean when I said before that I don't see how the biofilm would be less in the internal areas allowing for the quite area to be the residence of higher forms of life more interested in organic fines? JR

[MysticKoi]

Jim,

I can see where your logic is taking you, but I simply don't have the answers you are looking for.

Quote: But then again, all bacteria house on the contact points with other bacteria house, and all plastic media of the barrel design, as well all all ceramic 'noodle' media, has 'quiet space' in them?

Of course they do, however the Chip was designed specifically for use in a fluidized envornment. These other media types you mention, are of course static and have no dynamic forces. I think perhaps it difficult to draw analogies from a static media to a fluidized environment?

Quote: And IF quite spaces are the domain of special 'other creatures' is this area then lost to biofilm, thus reducing the total surface space of biofilm from the quoted statistics? See what I mean when I said before that I don't see how the biofilm would be less in the internal areas allowing for the quite area to be the residence of higher forms of life more interested in organic fines?

Like I said in a previous post... I haven't seen any "critters" inside of either of the Kaldnes varients, including micro-photographs. Instead, the inner areas of Kaldnes media have thick bio-films. These protezoa types are, however, present in the Chips, I can see them easily! Why this may be so, I simply don't know. Perhaps something we both can discuss over a cold beverage (on me of course) with Jasper someday?

Kind Regards,
Bill

[bekko]

Thanks for the plastics lesson Eugene.

BT (dunks) attack all insect life indescriminately (including beneficial insects), hence the ban. It will attack some of the creatures that the rest of these people are presently discussing.

-steve

[JasPR]

Morning Bill, Jasper makes my ears bleed! LOls He is definitely filled with information. Seriously, you name the time and the place and I'll buy!

But back to the bugs and filters. As I've mentioned, I think I was one of the first guys ( who knows if one is 'first' or a common umderstanding descents upon a group of fish geeks and then the next wave of ideas comes?) to design a fluidized bed for a commercial facility in the marine industry. It was 1981. The unit was a clear 10 foot tall cylinder. And elliptical base was fashioned over the flat floor and installed at a 45 degree angle. The water enters the cylinder under pressure and is introduced at the base via a one inch PVC pipe. The pipe volume is regulated with a hand valve. The flow of this water lifts several pounds of sand ( latter replaced with crushed coral) into suspension. It is eerie to see at first as the cylinder becomes a moving suspension of white undulating cloud in the otherwise clear water at the top of the cylinder. This becomes a super fluidized bed with hundreds and hundreds of sq feet of surface for bacteria to grow on. And most important of all, there is not trapping of fines ,or organics in general, so this is truly a nitrification reactor.
When this was tried on a koi pond, it didn't work. The reason is, the organic bombardment was so intense that a 'layer' of brown organic began building within the white undulating cloud. It was a neat trapping effect and I racked my brain trying to figure out a way to be able to remove this defined later of organic from the fluidized zone. Finally, when switching to pulverized coral in the form of a course coral sand, the layer disappeared. The reason was it was no longer nicely trapped by fine sand and became more dispersed in the column. It was becoming more of a bubble bead filter than a fluidized bed. So I moved onto 1 inch rings and air. These little guys worked well and trapped very little, but they then allowed for fines to move right thu the column. It was around this time that I met Caddock and Waddington and began adapting to the notion that a koi pond was NOT an indoor fish tank, just bigger.
Pre-filtration in koi ponds is so very important. But even with that effort, a koi pond is a closed system. The biofilm itself with adapt to biofouling. That is the ecosystem of the koi pond. IMHO. JR

[tewa]

was someone suppose to show some reports on how these little critters will improve water quality