Bacteria King from Reef Systems is a porous biomedia that might be able to double up as a calcium reactor media. Made from accretions of worm tubes and other calcium secreting organisms, the large pellets of Bacteria King are about the size of sugar cubes and extremely porous. A sales rep pulled a piece out of a running sump to let us have a closer look. After holding it in our hand for a few minutes we inadvertently thought it might be safe to pocket the piece, only to be rewarded with a big wet spot on our pants a few minutes later.
The porous natural calcium carbonate media is intended to serve as a biomedia which slowly dissolves through the biological activity of bacteria but Bacteria King may be able to serve double duty as an interesting calcium reactor media. The large size of the Bacteria King pieces would allow high water flow in a calcium reactor and the high porosity would also dissolve mineral from the inside of the blocks. Whether Bacteria King could really serve as a great calcium reactor media is yet to be seen, the accretion could crumble into its little itty bitty constituents but in either case, we’d love to use this in the wet-dry filter of our fish only for increased auto replenishment of calcium and magnesium.
