640gallon filtration, sand filters?

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Paul_MTS

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 30, 2005
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Essex- UK
I'ved been working my way through all the different types of filters and am now researching sand filters.

I'ved read the info in many places including om TMC's site. http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk/commercial/sand-filters.asp

I think i undertsand that there both mechanical and biological filtration which i would need to regularly back flush to get all the crap out of the sand bed.

What size unit would I need for my size tank which would be heavily stocked with cats, rays arowanas, bichirs, ST's and all the other usual monsters. I would imagine I'd be feeding aorund 5kg of food a week once everything is fully grown.

i'm planning on a resovoir to collect water fomr the wiers which is plumbed into the pump through the sand filter, uvs then returns to the tank.

I'll probable have a vege filter in there aswell for nitrate reduction.
 
I would go with bead filers instead of sand filters. They were designed to be used with fish while sand filters are made for swimming pools. A sand filter is made to polish water and the sand can clump togeather with a biological load and will put more head pressure on your pump. I would use a small bead filter with 1- 2 cubic feet of beads and perhaps a trickle tower as part of the return
 
That explains what was happening in my fludised sand bed the other week then! I was starting to get lumpy clogs sticking to the top of the tube.

I'ved got a Bubble bead filter running on my koi pond but that set me back £800 plus the cost of a prefilter in the form of a vortex.

I'ved found these bead filters which might do thr job better for a tank, but am I going to need to have a prefilter of some find? http://www.boddingtonkoi.co.uk/acatalog/Elecro_Powerbead.html

The sump should play a part in settle ment aswell with maybe a chunk of jap matting to make sure no large chunks of food reach the main filter.

I don't think I could have a trickle tower in the later part of the system as it's all going to be pressurised once it leaves the resovior sump.

Cheers.
 
I've also got a koi pond (17'000 gal) that uses bead filters with a vortex tank as a prefilter.A prefilter with a bead filter is a big plus but I have been using them on inside tanks plumed directly to the pump without prefilter or sump.One reason this works is my inside fish don't produce nearly the waste that large koi do.Also the turnover rate on the smaller inside tanks is much greater.You also need to backwash the bead filter regularly if you are relying on it for you biological filtration.
 
Oh not a bad size then! :eek: Soundsd like exact how I plumbed mine in, with a small vortex taking water from the 4" drain which contains brushes then pumped into the BBF.

I'm deffinately going to have a sump so I can put things like carbon in there and maybe back up heaters aswell.

I'm aiming to go for the maximum turnover the filter can take which will be 10'000lph, so i'm looking at using a 12'000lph pump to allow for decrease in flow after all the twists and turns and energy used by the bead filter.

How often did you find you needed to flush yours out? I water change weekly anf filter clean fortnightly at the moment, with foams as a prefilter on my current sumps.

But i know back flushing only takes a few mins. I'm thinking of placing a course micron screen in the sump to cut down the work the beads will need to do.

Have you ever used koi pond heaters for a tank, jused plumbed them straight inline to the system? I'm looking at using a 1KW heater rather than using 1.2kw worth of small tank heaters.

Thanks Paul.
 
Paul, I backwash my filters once a week. I backwash them over and over until 20-25% of the tank water is gone and thats also my water change. Ive been using much smaller heaters to just maintain tempature on a tightly covered tank without a sump....Scott
 
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