fluidized sand filter

[duke33]

I'm gonna order one, I'll Let ya know if it's any good.

 

[rvrrays]

I have a Lifeguard FB600 and it is great.

Colin

 

[duanes]

I made one from a DIY article in FAMA back in the 80s or early 90s that holds about 10 gallons of water and 5lbs of media, made out of PVC, works well.

I use aragonite for media, because as it dissolves it helps buffer alkalinity.

 

[Nic]

love mine work great

 

[lancepender]

Good Luck..fluidized sand filter works good..

 

[tmik]

2007-07-02

I've got a Pentair (Rainbow Lifegard) FB300 on a 60 gallon tank. I have sustained over 200 inches of fish in the system.

I used "Fish-less Cycling" to prepare the filter & found the process to be very time consuming (6 weeks). However, once seeded, it could really handle a load.

Heavy aeration is the secret IMO. Once fully seeded, I did not have livestock to place in the system immediately, so I would routinely add ammonia to bring it up to 1 ppm. With aeration, this would be nil within 24 hours (it may have been faster than that, but I never tested more than once a day). Without aeration, it would take several days the bring the ammonia level down (makes sense - - the nitrifying bacteria are aerobic).

I hope this will help to fine tune your plans . . . once you get it seeded, it will work like a charm.


Cheers,

Terry

 

[fishdance]

Since this seems to be an inform thread about Fluidised Bed Filters, someone better state that these are purely biological filters. Even tiny particles of dirt will pass through them unchecked. You can either put a mechanical prefilter or leave it. I choose to leave them as they are zero maintenance this way.

Downside is that during a power failure the active bacteria colony will die off if water stagnates too long.

 

[unknownuza13]

2007-07-02

I've got a Pentair (Rainbow Lifegard) FB300 on a 60 gallon tank. I have sustained over 200 inches of fish in the system.

I used "Fish-less Cycling" to prepare the filter & found the process to be very time consuming (6 weeks). However, once seeded, it could really handle a load.

Heavy aeration is the secret IMO. Once fully seeded, I did not have livestock to place in the system immediately, so I would routinely add ammonia to bring it up to 1 ppm. With aeration, this would be nil within 24 hours (it may have been faster than that, but I never tested more than once a day). Without aeration, it would take several days the bring the ammonia level down (makes sense - - the nitrifying bacteria are aerobic).

I hope this will help to fine tune your plans . . . once you get it seeded, it will work like a charm.


Cheers,

Terry

Thanks for this info. Great findings

 

[cbfreder]

I've been recently having problems with my FB300. I had it connected as a HOB, but over the course of a day the sand would settle through the plate at the bottom and fill up the down-tube. I was running it with an AC70 (~400 gph), so I don't know what the problem was.

I got fed up with this really quick, so I drained the sand and reconfigured it so that the water enters from the bottom. It's worked fine for a few days, and I found out what happened to all that media.

Brandon

 

[fishdance]

Filter should have an uplifting water motion to get the sand "fluidised" in suspension. ie water should go from bottom to top. The reason why fluidised beds are such effective biological filters is the constant churning and aggitation of sand (media) where the nitrifying bacteria colonise results in continuous abrasion so the bacteria is constantly torn off. Luckily the sand is irregular shaped so some bacteria does remain and the bacteria is forever trying to re-colonise the media. This "young active" stage of growth is the most effective at removing nitrite and ammonia. If you look at an established Fluidised Bed Filter you will see a distinct zone in the middle where the colour is different.

If you look at any wet/dry sump you will see a pile of detritus collect at the bottom. This is the old dead bacteria which tends to coat media and reduce its effectiveness.