Fluidised Canister?

[Aqua sobriquet]

What do you think of this idea using the K1?

 

[_Maq_]

It seems to me that for some reason aquarium hobbyists worldwide enjoy creating - buying - refining - adjusting - re-arranging powerful and big filters.
On the other side, few aquarium hobbyists devote time to studying hydrochemistry and water processing technologies.

 

[Aqua sobriquet]

It seems to me that for some reason aquarium hobbyists worldwide enjoy creating - buying - refining - adjusting - re-arranging powerful and big filters.

This filter is only about 2 Litres.

 

[zozo]

What do you think of this idea using the K1?

Will not work since K1 floats and then will be pushed up by the constant static flow going from bottom to top and the K1 will stay floating.
But used with sand what it is made for, it is unbeatable in the surface area...

K1 is designed for use with an air stone, you could DIY one from a pet bottle.

 

[Aqua sobriquet]

Will not work since K1 floats and then will be pushed up by the constant static flow going from bottom to top and the K1 will stay floating.
But used with sand what it is made for, it is unbeatable in the surface area...

You must have missed the bit in the video where he used an Air Stone with K1. It moved nicely. It starts with the Air line installation at about 17:20.

 

[zozo]

You must have missed the bit in the video where he used an Air Stone with K1. It moved nicely. It starts with the Air line installation at about 17:20.

Indeed I missed that part, it indeed moves nicely. This can only work if the pump pushes the water through the canister. As you can see he has the pump in the tank pushing unfiltered water into the canister inlet. It would be wise first to use a prefilter then, the K1 or Sand bed should be the last stage of biochemical filtration, /nitrification, you don't want any (large) dirt particles collecting in this canister. And also the pump will clog soon if you do not prefilter.

If you would place the pump at the outlet side of the K1 canister the pump will collect all the air bubbles in its impeller housing and lose significant if not all turnover.

So his setup would need a prefilter first then a pump then the K1 canister. I'm not sure how such an upside-down concept setup will work in the long run. It's not ideal.

For about 8 years ago I played a while with K1 and also with a fluidized sandbed filter...


They are all fun to build and have but regarding planted tanks actually a tad over the top. You might not need it, and likely is more than enough. For a sufficiently planted tank, a decent setup canister filter does the job together with the plants in the tank. All you do extra on top of what is already sufficient enough doesn't make it all any better. Tho it makes it more fancy looking and has a nice learning curve and positive effect on DIY skills and experience and this has value too.

For me personally, it was a nice experiment and experience but in the end, I ditched both concepts after a while simply because of their over-sufficiency and extra bells, whistles and hassle and extra cost while the benefit seen from a filtering perspective only is in your head.

But that is also a matter of perception and personal preferences. In the end, you can make it as complicated as you wish, being more sufficient than you need has no biological negative impact. It might have a mechanical impact, the more bottlenecks you put between the tank and pump the more power you need to turn it over.

 

[Aqua sobriquet]

It was the basic principle that interested me. I think you’re taking it too literally, what he showed in the video was I believe just a quick setup to show it working.
I asked the question elsewhere and apart from some comments about the poor construction methods the answer was that it should work well as a filter.
The only issue seems to be that it can take quite a while for the bacteria to grow on the media.

 

[zozo]

it should work well as a filter.
The only issue seems to be that it can take quite a while for the bacteria to grow on the media.

It's an excellent filtering method, especially since the sandbed has the largest surface area imaginable, where every single grain of sand is similar to 1 K1 pebble. So there are no media out there with a larger surface area than fluidized sandbed.

Bacteria colonize pretty fast if there is food available in a matter of hours. For example, see the cloudy water phenomenon lots of aquarium keepers ponder over. Having milky-coloured water that develops all of a sudden in hours time and is back again within a few hours after a water change. This milky water is caused by a sudden population boost in infusoria, bacteria and other microorganisms. If all is right for the moment they can multiply faster than rabbits in an hour's time.

It's the K1 buoyancy that makes it take a few months to get a biofilm heavy enough to make K1 semy buoyant and swirl around in between the air bubbles and be 100% effective. Sandbed will be colonized sufficiently a lot quicker than K1.

I only answered your question "What do you think?" Well, this is what I think... No idea if it's too literally and also have no idea how to answer this figuratively.
Anyway, for a planted tank, the most bacteria are in the aquarium itself, in the substrate, in and on the plants/roots and in the biofilm on the glass and other submerged surfaces. Whatever filter you hook to it, the number of bacteria in the filter will be (figuratively) like a drop on a hot plate compared with the numbers in the aquarium itself. Adding an extra fluidized bed filter of whatever kind to such a setup does its job from a perspective if it doesn't help it doesn't hurt. Do you need it? That's a question nobody can answer with 100% certainty. On this, I can only share my opinion based on experience in which I came to the conclusion the answer is "no I don't need it" I have never seen any difference with or without it. It's a fun and intriguing concept to build but also a waste of energy for use in planted setups.

Fluidized bed filters are more applicable in unplanted bare bottom setups, Koy ponds and swimming pools.

 

[Aqua sobriquet]

I did say in my original post “using K1”, I wouldn’t use sand in it. If I decided to give it a try it would be on a tank with both Fish and plants.

Edit: A couple more videos on the topic in case it’s of interest to others.