Kent Bio Rocker

[Anonymous]

Just got mine in the store today. Okay, so it's a trickle filter on steroids but I think they're really neat and hypnotizing to watch.

 

[IcantTHINKofONE]

Rover, where do you use it?

 

[Anonymous]

It's designed to sit in the sump.

 

[Kalkbreath]

Ive heard real good reports on its abilities ......I even have two in the store , but have yet to hook one up. An ex store owner has a two foot Triton trigger a four foot tessa eel and something else in his three hundred gallon, says he dumps whole salmon in the tank without a spike?
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[SPC]

Posted by Rover:

Just got mine in the store today. Okay, so it's a trickle filter on steroids but I think they're really neat and hypnotizing to watch.

-Glenn, can this be used for a turf scrubber?
Steve

 

[JeremyR]

I thought this was the biggest joke of the kent booth at the appma..why on earth do we even need another type of trickle filter? Haven't we gotten beyond that?

 

[Anonymous]

Steve-

I doubt it. It rocks back and forth dumping the water out of the filter each time. It's basically a trickle filter that won't get impacted with detritus and has more surface area for bacteria. Mostly good for fish only tanks or tanks without a lot of live rock IMHO.

I'm wondering if you can purchase just the box as it's perfectly sump sized. You don't need the bio rocker for a reef anyway.

Glenn

 

[Anonymous]

Here's the web site.

http://www.kentmarine.com/br.html

 

[Reefguide]

I'm with Rover, aren't we past the trickle and wet/dry filters?

 

[Kalkbreath]

The same reason most LFS use trickle, is that the ability to convert Ammonia quickly is much greater. A trigger fish ,being messy eater means that he will be swimming around in Ammonia until the bio filter converts the waste. this would take quite some time in a natural sand or live rock system.......
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[JeremyR]

I feed over a dozen cubes of forumula a day into my fowlr, as well as a bunch of pellets and a chunk of mysis... thinking big fish need a wet dry is old school, I would have thought all the people doing fowlrs would have dispelled that notion by now, but for some reason it still hangs on...

 

[MattM]

Jeremy -

We don't really sell wet/dry's in the store anymore, but we do have one of these Kent Bio-Rockers on our quarantine system. There is sometimes considerable die-off in this system from less-than-perfect shipments, and there is limited live rock so we can catch the fish.

So, I agree most people have moved beyond the need for wet/dry filters, but there is still the occasional case where it makes sense.

 

[Chucker]

Nothing more than a different version of an old principle. The same idea has been applied to sewage treatment for quite some time now. Rotating biological contactors are a secondary treatment option which you can learn a bit more about at the following links-

http://www.cee.vt.edu/program_areas/env ... 3/rbc.html
http://tristate.apogee.net/et/ewtwrbc.htm
http://www.me.cc.va.us/dept/ietech/wate ... 49/rbc.htm
http://www.eng.rpi.edu/dept/chem-eng/Bi ... C/rbc.html

 

[JeremyR]

Yeah, I definitely don't see a problem with using it on a quarantine system in a store, but as a product marketed for the home hobbyist I think it's pretty lame.

 

[Anonymous]

Why limit it to marine aquaria though (other than the fact that that's the scope of this board). Until they come out with a freshwater live rock large freshwater predator tanks (SA/African Cichlids etc) it probably makes good sense.

 

[Kalkbreath]

It makes good sense for large triggers ,eels ,puffers and groupers as well.......Live rock based bio filters for large fish very rarely work out for the average hobbists{and most hobbists ARE average}. more often then not they become green hairly Ick traps..........The inch of fish per pound of liverock ratio is way too little. The recovery rate of ammonia is too slow. ....... nitrite test your liverock based large fish only system next time you feed heavy or a fish dies.........Yes I Know , your not suppose to have large fish in a 55 but tell that to all the pet panther grouper and nurse shark out there, the reality is that a bio rockers "bio" is more reliable.........for the average over-feeding, over- stocked fish only tank.
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[Anonymous]

Yes I Know , your not suppose to have large fish in a 55 but tell that to all the pet panther grouper and nurse shark out there, the reality is that a bio rockers "bio" is more reliable.........for the average over-feeding, over- stocked fish only tank.

Yes we should promote products for the irresponsible fish keeper. Gotta make it easier for them to be ignorant right? I've yet to see a tank that is humanely stocked overpower the live rock's filtering capacity. Just because it's out there on the market and could even help aleve some of the problems of an inhumane aquarium it's merely a band-aid at best. If an LFS is truly concerned about the health of the animals it sells it would not sell filtration thats only going to exacerbate the problem.

Wet/Dry's and marine aquariums really only have limited times that they should be used together , i.e. with large ammonia producers in specific setups like cephalopod tanks (cuttlefish are rather impressive ammonia producers) or in cold water systems where the rock tends to be more granite based than calcium based. It shouldn't be promoted to allow the knucklehead to keep animals higher confines than is humane.

For FW setups absolutely, the wet/dry is worthwhile, I just see no application for it in the average marine setup.

 

[Anonymous]

Nothing more than a different version of an old principle. The same idea has been applied to sewage treatment for quite some time now. Rotating biological contactors are a secondary treatment option which you can learn a bit more about at the following links-

http://www.cee.vt.edu/program_areas/env ... 3/rbc.html
http://tristate.apogee.net/et/ewtwrbc.htm
http://www.me.cc.va.us/dept/ietech/wate ... 49/rbc.htm
http://www.eng.rpi.edu/dept/chem-eng/Bi ... C/rbc.html

agreed.

they are reinventing the wheel.here's a simple design that does exactly the same thing,won't accumulate detritus either, and can be built diy:


marineland also makes a high capacity rbc that works just as well:

 

[Anonymous]

the chicken wire can be replaced with non corroding plastic mesh, or fiberglass, for marine systems

 

[dizzy]

At MACNA I learned that ceramic foam (Cell Pore) which was used in the rocker is going out of production. Kent bought them and now they are closing it. The cost to produce ceramic foam was its death nail for a tight marine industry.