TMC V2 Bio Fluidized Sand Filter Set-up

[devonjohnsgard]

Evening everyone,

I did a handful of videos for my aquarium, which I wanted to share. Here are a couple that focus on my sand filter set-up of how it's plumbed in. Feel free to ask questions or make suggestion. This is a powerful little filter, so it's worth showing off.



Part 2

[goldenpuon]

Thanks for sharing! I really like your setup. Your water looks extremely clear. I had never seen a fluidized sand filter in person before, so it was nice to see a demo of how it works.

Renee

[Ameenah]

Very impressive Devon! It certainly seems that you having the same issue that I have with my V-1000 FSB Filter - finding the best pump for the job. It is nice knowing I am not alone LOL.

You mentioned a good point, that our FSB Filters require stronger pump as they "season" (build the nitrification bacteria colony.) This is exactly why it is so important for us to have a ball valve on the input tubing - open the flow rate as the FSB Filter "ages." So we are both searching for "the perfect pump!" I personally plan to acquire a pump with a max flow rate of about 500 GPH just to be sure that it will work great as the "colony" ages. Sadly, you and I have different size tanks so we will not be using the same "perfect pump." The adventure continues.......

[Carl]

Excellent videos Devon!

It definitely takes more head pressure as the sand seasons, however would slightly disagree with the analysis of his experiments.

I set up an entire store and several FW and Marine aquariums with FSB Filters of varying size and varying pump abilities.
The key was always pre-filtration, not necessarily the pump.
I even ran some exceptionally high bio load feeder goldfish tanks with FSB filters, these rarely had issues with clogging and getting too slow. the key again was these tanks either had large pre-filters or in some cases canister filters.
The clue to knowing if you have adequate pre-filtration is the FSB filter had no "chunks" of debris and the pump (or canister filter) impeller housing never had more than a film of organic deposits, never large amounts of "gunk".

Carl

[devonjohnsgard]

Im trying really hard to get the SunSun 065 to work for my set-up. I'm finding the problem I have is the pre-filtration. Large chunks of debris is getting through the pump into the sand filter. This pump doesn't have a way to hook a filter max up to it. Last week, I started using volcanic rock, which was a great way of hiding the pump too (I'd rather look at rock than an a sponge filter...) My problem once I put the rock around the filter is my large fish shift the rock around, so the front of the pump becomes exposed. My solution for this was to get a filter bag and rubber band it around the front of the filter, then bury it best I could with the VR. We'll see how well this keeps the larger stuff out, cause when there is no large stuff in the filter, it fluidizes great. If a build-up in the filter starts, with-in a week, the sand is too heavy to fluidize.

I'll update you on the process and have another video to demonstrate what I did.

[Carl]

This is the problem with the SunSun JP 065 & 066. Both are very sturdy well built pumps, but cannot easily be mated with Sponge Pre-filters without some serious modifications.
This is where the Rio series such as the 1100 or even 1700 have an advantage.

I also used a large internal filter similar to the SunSun HJ-952 in some applications including the feeder goldfish tanks

Product Resource:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/ViaAqua302PowerFilter.html#HJ-952

However these do not have a great deal of head pressure and I used these for tanks with pre-drilled holes directly through the bottom of the tank and into the FSB Filter, thus head pressure was not an issue aand the larges sponges did a good job of pre-filtration.

When I used Volcanic rock to either add to sponge pre-filtration or in place of it, I make a rock "wall"with larger flat rocks and then placed the pump in here and back filled with relatively fine volcanic rock.

Carl

[Carl]

Here is another article reviewing and about the use of FSB aquarium filters (some good tips here too):

aap.atrixnet.com/?p=375#installation

Carl