# k1 media / freshwater sumps



## dwarf_puffer (Apr 25, 2010)

Hey everyone. I was just curious if anyone has any experiences successfully using this media in there freshwater sump. Also if you have any great DIY sump plans or ideas please let me know as Im about to build my first sump for a 240 gallon tank. I plan to have a heavily planted large community tank with 10 or so discus for stock and was planning on using a 4 foot 75 gallon tank. Will that be a large enough sump for that stock / tank size?

I was also planning on running the rio 20HF as my submersible pump. As I require higher temps for the discus, I'm not to worried about the access heat it gives off. That pump runs at just shy of 1000 GPH at 3 feet below the aquarium and in addition i will also be running my ehiem pro 3 off my sump for additional filtation and to run my inline co2 reactor. Will this be enough filtration? I prefer to run wayyyyyy to much filtration so please let me know if this is " just enough" or overkill as I plan on using over kill anyways 

My other issue is building a system in which the K1 media does not use a wet dry or air stone tumbler effect. Since im running co2 this unfortunatly can not be an option. To combat this issue, ( as K1 floats) I was trying to plan a way in which I could use the force of the water entering the sump to "push" down the k1 media while it try to float up ( essentially replacing the tumbling effect without the addition of oxygen). Anyone have any opinions with this or experience? Im just worried that the GPD might be to high simply pushing the k1 media down perminately not allowing it to float and the k1 being "mixed" un evenly and getting "clumped up" and stuck in sections/corners . Additionally how much k1 should I be using/ how large of a section should it be made into my sump. I found a calculator online saying i should use 15 litres and there fore the section it should be placed is in a 2:1 ratio making the k1 section to be 30 litres. Any suggestions on any aspect of the sump would greatly be appreciated!

Thanks so much for the read and look forward to seeing your responses.

Josh


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## dwarf_puffer (Apr 25, 2010)

*** and does anyone know where to purchase k1 / roughly how much it costs? i was able to find it on amazon for 50USD for 25 liters


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## Niku (Feb 11, 2014)

K1 is neutrally buoyant so it won't in fact float back up to the surface ... I don't think its the right choice for a planted setup sump. I'm no expert but the more area of surface you have in the system the more Co2 will diffuse so if it were me I would run 2 or 3 large canisters and call it a day. Being its all inline you can adjust the returns for minimal surface disturbance and get maximum Co2 saturation. Otherwise your just going to be cramming Co2 into your tank and losing most to your setup ... And that will get costly over time 

But all that is my $.02 on it


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