Fluidized bed filter media

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kamikaziechameleon

kamikaziechameleon

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Sep 23, 2010
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Well I'm looking to aquire some 125 gallon and up tanks in the next couple months and was looking to put them all on a giant sump. I want the return to feature atleast one if not two fluidized bed filters. I was thinking of swapping silica sand or what ever you typically put in one of those with crushed coral in the hopes that it would help with either raising the ph or buffering it higher. My water is pretty soft out of the tap, just over 7, i was hoping to get it up over 8 if possible. Would putting coral in the FBF have a tangible impact on anything? Or am I not as cleaver as I think.

Me and my G. tile miss my old house, tap water was almost 9 out of the tap.
 
Crushed coral would not work in a fluidized bed filter. The purpose of the fluidized bed filter is to keep the sand suspended in the water column of the filter in order to maximize the useful surface area of the sand. That's not going to happen with crushed coral as it's too heavy to stay suspended. You could replace the silica sand with aragonite sand of the proper size. This should work out ok. But, unless these are huge fbf's I don't think they're going to help out much with buffering. You could put the sand or crushed coral in the bottom of your sump or better yet use 2 or 3 inches of the aragonite sand in the bottom of your tanks. Texas holey rock is a big help in raising the buffering ability in your tanks. Any limestone rocks will do the same. IMO though texas holey rock and what most fish stores sell as 'base rock' for marine tanks are the best looking. I hope this helps you out a little. Perhaps someone else can chime in too.
 
return to feature atleast one if not two fluidized bed filters

Why?
 
@ Nighthawk

Thanks that is extremely helpful, thank you very much

@KaiserSousay

They are to be breeder tanks and as I understand it FBF scale quickly and well to meet different bioload requirements. the reason their may be more than one FBF is if I had more than one return pump on the Uber sump I'm designing.
 
Why what? Why get all those tanks? why put them all on one filter? why use a FBF in the first place?

Actually, I was going by the question your post`s title asked, Fluidized bed filter media.
That is the title of your post, right?
My question was why , with bio media space available in your central sump, you would want FBF as well.
The media in a well designed wet/dry will allow the BB colonies to expand and contract to the bio loads you throw at it.
FBF,
I gave a FBF a go using pool filter sand. Found out they are allot harder than they look.
The whole trick is keeping the sand in suspension, while not letting it clump or get blown out of the container.
Drove me nuts with my finally shelving the deal.
Your original post sounds like your trying to do 2 things at once.
You want PH buffering and use the same material as a bio filter?
Or are you not talking about a FBF at all?
Your last post would lead me to believe you want buffering more than added bio material.
 
The reason i threw out my FBF is because it was a pain keeping the sand in full suspension and I had to add more sand every couple months to keep a good bed. Also if you ever have a power outage for a few hours the bed will settle on it's self and crash. If you are not home and it starts back up when the power goes on it can kill your tanks. I also bought the life guard FBF and it constantly leaked which is a pretty common problem with them.

It did have it's upside though I cold have a heavier stocked tank with it and my water was always much clearer with it.

When i set up another one I am going to use the kaldness media because it floats and does not crash as easily. Also if you look at Koi pond forums there are some nice DIY FBF settling tanks using this media.
 
Thanks guys this has been awesome feedback.

Didn't realize they could "crash" and kill. I will deffinately follow up with a look into the koi forums.

I was hopping to get two birds with one stone but this has all been very constructive feed back that will help in a huge way as I design this future setup.

I'm now unsure as to wheather or not I should use a FBF but I'll do more research and get back on here with my next design.
 
Best for new water, and then you have to cut it back with nutrients. If you ran it on the tank, everything would probably just up and die. Too soft to support most life, pure RO is.
 
Ok, that is a relief. The reason I asked is because I was cleaning out a guys basement and he had a bunch of RO setups. I was wondering if I could use em. Well I think I'm gonna forgo the FBF for now and tack one onto the sump return after I move.
 
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