Wet Welsh Fishkeeper

B

bathtub

Small Fish
#1
Dec 31, 2002
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52
Wales, UK
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#1
30 year old that's had fish from before I was born......
Currently running a 75 gallon freshwater tank- and saving for a 450 gallon reeftank (at current rate that should be sometime 3132).
Chemical Engineer by trade- what I don't know about filter design and operation probably ain't worth knowing...
Want to make a fluidised bed with knock-out hydrocyclone- I'm your fella.
Have extensive SCUBA experience- especially Indian Ocean...

WHY IS THIS HOBBY SO DAMN ADDICTIVE ! ! ! !
*celebrate
 

B

bathtub

Small Fish
#3
Dec 31, 2002
43
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52
Wales, UK
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#3
Fluidized bed is where you tak a small particle (say sand) and push a liquid through it (say water) in a small(ish) tube (say a coke bottle)- to the extent where all the particles are essentially suspended and acts like a fluid. So ignoring the water, the sand is actually moving like a liquid....
Advantages in a fish tank are that the entire surface area of the fluidised sand is available for bacterial colonisation, you don't get any 'dead (anerobic) spots' as the is continual movement of oxygentated water aeound the suspended particle, there tends to be an 'attrition' effect- so if some muck gets into the fluidised bed it tends to get ground down. Simply there is no better way to get biological filtration in such a small space.

To ensure the bed fluidises evenly you need all the particles to be roughly the same size (the closer they are the more even the fluidization)- otherwise by the time you've got enough flow going to fluidize the big particles, the small ones will be flying out of the fluidized bed and ito the system (known as 'carry-over').

You can fluidize just about anything- I currently have a fluidized bed with Rowaphos in it- just eating the phosphate from the tank- I would really reccomend this to any reef- keeper as a great system....
whew!- explain it for you?

For a living I run a Fluidized cat cracker (FCC) at an oil refinery- we keep approx 150 tonnes of what is essentialy sand flying through the air and acting like a fluid 24/7. When we get a power cut and the fans fail it's quite scary seeing it all come crashing down !
 

Somonas

Somonas

Superstar Fish
#5
Oct 22, 2002
2,061
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O-town
www.myfishtank.net
#5
Scuba eh ? Cool. I am in the process of completing my NAUI advanced openwater, but there isn't much in the way of diving up here unless you enjoy doing it under a thick sheet of ice. If you ever get a chance check out Lake Malawi, it's pretty good, for freshwater.
 

B

bathtub

Small Fish
#8
Dec 31, 2002
43
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52
Wales, UK
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#8
Freshwater mud pits- yes, quarries, yes- lakes in a place called 'the lake district' yes (muddly puddles again avtually- here in the UK we don't really have anything in the way of decent lakes.....
Now last time I was in Canada- they were lakes (can fit the whole UK in lake superior 3 times)
 

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