Hi,
I have finally got my quarantine tank and Nexus Eazy Pod plumbed in!!!! But not sure if I have a problem with my K1/air pump? The Pod is pump fed, and last night when I finally stopped a couple of annoying little drips from the heater fittings I had a play at cleaning the K1 by switching the air on, (ALL SET UP ACCORDING TO THE MANUAL!) and the K1 doesn't/didn't seem to be moving at all? I have read that K1 when new can take a while to get going! So I decided to leave the air to it running all night. Just been out to shed to check up on it, and still no tumbling about of K1? Is this normal? From what I can see (which isn't much because of the way that it is all set up, it appears none of it is tumbling!!!! I have the airtec 70 running it.
Any thoughts from you friendly folk?
Cheers Gaz,
Water level is where it recommends in the manual, ie in line with the overflow assembly. I have just phoned EA and they say it won't start to fluidise until fish are in and some waste is produced in order to stop K1 being so buoyant! And there was me thinking I had read everything there is to read on the matter!!!
We live and learn
You probably have the water level set as EA suggest, but because the K1 is new and boyant you will need to raise the level even more.
What I do is once I have isolated the filter, ie put the middle pipe in and closed off the side slide valve , I get mine to boil by adding an extra bucket of pond water to the pod to raise the level of the water to almost over the overflow level. This then allows the K1 to boil away.
Hello Colin ..
i am presuming that the pod and K1 are brand new ??
if so i would personally take the K1 back out and give it a good PPing in a tub ..then pop it back into the pod.
The reasoning is that the PP will remove the manufacturing residue thats on the K1 and etch it for easier colonisation by the bacteria.
Hence it should mature quicker
Also you may need to remove a small amount as other have said until you get the boiling effect and as it matures try adding it back.
regards
Max
Hi Max, thanks for your reply.
Yes it is a new Pod. I knew I should of gone ahead and done the PP soak first. Oh well I've got 3 small koi in the QT/growing tank at the mo, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem taking some k1 out.
maxinegrundy wrote:Hello Colin ..
i am presuming that the pod and K1 are brand new ??
if so i would personally take the K1 back out and give it a good PPing in a tub ..then pop it back into the pod.
The reasoning is that the PP will remove the manufacturing residue thats on the K1 and etch it for easier colonisation by the bacteria.
Hence it should mature quicker
Also you may need to remove a small amount as other have said until you get the boiling effect and as it matures try adding it back.
regards
Max
I wish i had heard about that earlier as it looks like my k1 is not building up a dark brown layer at all, its just got a few green tinges on it, and when i 'boil' the media it goes back to being spotless,Ii might take half out and try it with the PP, so as not to loose the amonia part of the cycle which is working well, oh yeah, if you don't already know handle PP with the upmost respect, gloves and proper full cover glasses.
Hello All
Another thing i do in summer is keep a large tub with K1 in it lots of airstones to keep it fluidised and feed it some flake food once a day
the food will break down and start to give off ammonia and then the cycle starts ..and it doesnt take long either.
this gives me a fresh batch ready to go into a filter should i need it.
I didnt need to use any from my tub last year but you would have been amazed how much pond life was in there
regards
Max
I had a play at cleaning the K1 by switching the air on, (ALL SET UP ACCORDING TO THE MANUAL!) and the K1 doesn't/didn't seem to be moving at all? I have read that K1 when new can take a while to get going! So I decided to leave the air to it running all night. Just been out to shed to check up on it, and still no tumbling about of K1? Is this normal? From what I can see (which isn't much because of the way that it is all set up, it appears none of it is tumbling!!!! I have the airtec 70 running it.
