Since the development of the Kaldnes Moving Bed™ process and its successful introduction into the waste water treatment industry in 1991, Kaldnes K1 media has become the industry standard throughout the world. However Kaldnes have not been idle and they have continued their extensive Research and Development programme to further improve the efficiency of their process over the last 12 years. The Bio Chip is the result of this programme and is much more than just a different shaped media. Although the total protected surface area is more than 2.4 times higher than K1 - this is only part of the story. The main difference to K1/K3 is that the protected area or quiet zone in Bio Chip, is designed to be the perfect environment for micro animals, not just bacteria. The extremely quiet zones created by the hydrophilic layer protecting every cavity in the Bio Chip, is critical to allow these micro animals to flourish. With other types of media they will be flushed out.

These micro animals feed on small particles such as, fish waste, dead bacteria and algae. There are many different types of these micro animals as you can see from our illustrations. Consider that the Vortecilia as illustrated in fig 1, are filtering 10,000 times their own volume per hour and are feeding on particles up to 5 microns in size. It is these small particles that are always difficult to remove by mechanical means and make our water cloudy !

fig . 1

Once fully colonised the bio chip contains an army of these micro animals, all filtering tens of thousands of times their own volume every hour, searching for these tiny particles. Gleaming healthy water, high in oxygen content with low BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) will follow!

The Bio Chip is meant to be fluidized in conjunction with K1 and K3 media, the protected area or quiet zone in the media is the perfect enviroment for micro animals not just bacteria. These micro animals feed on small particles such as, fish waste, dead bacteria and algae. These small particles which the micro animals feed on are difficult to remove and make our water cloudy. As the micro animals feed on these small particles they will help create gleaming healthy water, high in oxygen content with a low BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand).

Click on the K1/Biochip image to view a larger picture.