Fluidised Sand Bed Filters

[sharp tooth]

i have no idea what you would need in the way of size for 2 fsf. if it was me i would go for a 3ft tall 110mm fsf.

you said you can get hold of clear 110mm pvc pipe, WERE FROM!!? i carnt ever find any lol. well any thats cheap enough. the last bit of acrylic i was given cost the lad £90 for a 4ft length because it was thick walled. that was the only proper bit of pipe ive used.

you have to think about how you are going to blank the ends off, can you get end caps the right size? are you going to bond the ends on?

have you seen any desighns your going to use yet?

i forgot to say i also have 2x 35w uvs running on my tank.

 

[Paul_MTS]

Ta dah..... clear PVC pipe... http/www.boddingtonkoi.co.uk/acatalog/Clear_PVC_Pipe.html £23 per metre.

Bodington Koi is a great company along with Fish Fur, Feather I get all my pipe work from those 2 companies, be sure to get 1 of there catalogues sent through much better than trying to navigate on there site in some places!

Due to a low ceiling my stand is probable only going to be 32" high or something like that so I think the FSB's will have to be a tad shorter unless I can find some slightly wider stuff, I was thinking of e-mailing 1 of the places that make acrlic column aquarims, although it is going to be the problem with pipe fittings, atleast with the stuff in the aove link I can easily get parts for, so maybe a 3rd would be in order thats run on a closed loop inside the sump to make sure I have all I need there.

No, I haven't really looked into any designs yet, did a quick search on the net and found a DIY'd one with pictures that was a triangle shape! They seem to be just a maze of pipe work with some sand inside though.

What make UV's do you run? I'ved crossed out TMC on my list as there flowrates are pathetic and would need a bay of about 5 30W's to do anything, So i'm looking at the new aquamedic Helix's there's a 36W which claims to do 2000ltr so I'm thinking 2 of these, just finding out the flowrate currently.

Is there a formula to work out how much sand you need, per weight in fish and how much food. Most koi filters work on a 1% per day feed rate. Although personally I'ved never weighed my trop fish!

 

[sharp tooth]

i have no idea on working out how much you need to do what amount of filtering, all i belive in is overkill and you acrnt go rong lol.

i use the tmc 30w, i run them both from 1 3000lph pump and they work spot on.

ive also seen the triangel desighn one, to much work cutting and bonding the acrylic.

ill try and find some pics of the old one i built to show you what desighn i use as its about the easyest one to build.

 

[Paul_MTS]

Yer over kill is good, but how do you know when you overkilling and not too litle!

jeez, looking at pipe work prices to kit up a bit of 110mm pipe is going to cost!

wow, really thought you would of had more than that, 1 30W isn't even enough to treat my 210g according to TMC, I have 2 30w sitting aorund in the fish room as they were going cheap but I think the AquaMedic ones being alot more compact and powerful are more tempting.

OK cheers, just had a proper read through Garbo's DIY one and I see he had in/out on the top, i always thought of FSB's as water going in at the bottom and out through the top.

 

[sharp tooth]

yer the tmc 30`s arnt the best but i havent got as much cash as i wished i had.

the pipe work dose mount up in the way of money, this is why i build what i can out of what i have. hence the reason for keeping my eyes open for a old bubble tube so i can use that.

i also have the inlet and out let at the top but the inlet has a pipe inside that travels to the base, so pumping the water out underneath the sand and then exiting from the top.

here is the small cheap one ive just built, it needs a bigger pump to really get the sand flowing but its running fine as it is for now.

http/putfile.com/pic.php?pic=1/2814423341.jpg&s=x4

 

[Paul_MTS]

Yeh, i'm going to have to saving seriously to get the tank built and have the filtration how I want it form the beginning.

That really does look simple to build! I'll be going DIY!

Oh nice big brass non return valve, dug 1 of them out at work today!

If I was to build a prototype one and run it on my current system would I be able to see any changes? like reduced nitrates?

Hmmm talking of prototypes do you think a Ehiem Pro 3 is powerful enough to power a small one on the outlet? 1700lph.

Oh any chance of some full pictures of your sump set up?

Cheers

 

[sharp tooth]

sadly you wont see any loss in nitrates! quite the oposite you might see a rise if your current filtration isnt keeping up with the bio load.
sand filters are pure bio filtration but they still only work like a normal filter. the convery ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrate, this ofcorse will need to be gotten ride of in the normal way ie water changes and plants. they wont make you water any clearer or polish it or anything like that, if crap gets in the filter it will find is way out again.

a pro 3 will have enough power easly to use on a small one, just watch out because sometimes you have to turn the flow down as the sand can be blasted out of the filter with to much flow.

the small one i built has a 1000 lph pump on it, the only rason i need a larger pump on it is because its such a fat jar. its about 6/7" round so the water has loads of space to escape with out turning over all the sand.

if you built one out of 4" pipe at a hight of say 24" then i would think a 1000 lph pump should be fine for the job.

a good thing to do is get a pump thats to big and put a tap between the pump and the fsf so you can ajust the flow to how you want it. you do this by looking at the level of thye sand in the tube, to high and some sand will start to escape out of the out take, to low and it wonty work to full capasity.

in you 24" length of tube you will only have a dept of say 4/5" of sand when its not on, when its running you want the level of the sand to rise up to about 18" in the tube before the sand starts to fall back down to the bottom again. its all it and miss and trile and error with sand levels and power.

 

[Paul_MTS]

shame could do with lower nitrates!

going to have to play with a planted sump soon to get them down.

that shouldn't be a problem I could tee it so that the flow to the sand bed is adjusted.

I think I'll have to do a prototype in the coming weeks and fix it onto my 40x30x20 which will soon be a holding tank for a ray.

Whats the best kind of sand to use? I think TMC swear by the Oolite sand and Cloverleaf have there own stuff called Bio-Mass...??

 

[sharp tooth]

i just use BD tradeing sand in mine, never had a problem with it and ive always had loads at hand so never thought about buying some.

 

[Paul_MTS]

Yesterday I order some of that 4" PVC pipe and an end cap to have a play with.

I hope to be able to cut some 6mm acrylic I have to form the other end cap.

Should be fun trying to cut a straight edge!

 

[sharp tooth]

Yesterday I order some of that 4" PVC pipe and an end cap to have a play with.

I hope to be able to cut some 6mm acrylic I have to form the other end cap.

Should be fun trying to cut a straight edge!

is it acrylic pipe or pvc? if its pvc you might not be able to bond it to acrylic?

 

[Paul_MTS]

It's PVC pipe, I'll dos ome testing with the off cuts, but if silicone fails adheseal will do it!

I went round all my 4" plumbing on my pond with this stuff, sticks to anything.

 

[penguinpimp1990]

does anyone know if you could use any type of sand in the filter or does it have to the sand supplied with the filter? If i could use aragonite sand in a FBF on my brackish tank it would be buffered really good and i could use play sand for the aquarium and save me a ton of money!

 

[Paul_MTS]

Yes as far as I'm aware you can use any type of sand in there aslong as it isn't too course/heavy.

I got the pipe and fittings through today, Test unit is going to be for a 400l tank with a 1000lph external filter either the 2028 or 2217, undecided at the moment.

Should hopefully get it built in next few days.

 

[T1KARMANN]

Yes as far as I'm aware you can use any type of sand in there aslong as it isn't too course/heavy.

I got the pipe and fittings through today, Test unit is going to be for a 400l tank with a 1000lph external filter either the 2028 or 2217, undecided at the moment.

Should hopefully get it built in next few days.

i think you will need a stronger pump than a 1000lph just get your self a ehiem hobby pump they dont need to be in water and turn over 1200lph model eheim 1250 or the 1260 for more flow