Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

okay, we got the sand filter from "shopping" last week. Now, we are considering hooking it up to the purge/quarantine tank. This tank usually runs with some salt in it, which apparently would preclude the use of zeolite.
So, the question is, what do we put in the filter? Coarse sand? what other suggestions?

Bio balls and some mesh or coarse river sand. And zeolite will only let out stored ammonia with a lot of salt. In my pool I have up to 3ppt and it still sucked the ammonia out of the water.

Hi jaymie i have mucked about with one also, i just used filter sand and yes it did work kind off But the biggest downer is you have to keep water flowing in it all the time otherwise it gets very anerobic [stinks would knock your head off and kill fish ] draining , back flushing, or empting dont work. Me thinks a small grow bed running salt tolerent plants best

P/S anybody wants a sand filter to play with can have mine free

Jamie

I would avoid sand, as F&F said it can stratify and go anaerobic easily. Best choice would be HDPE pellets, if not you could try soft drink bottle caps The advantage is that both are slightly positively bouyant.
Zeolite is only for emergency use as it will remove ammonium but also has an affinity for sodium and to a degree calcium.

Clay balls.

Good idea

When using clay balls in these situations you need to make sure they are packed in a way that they will not constantly move around. If they move around they rub against each other and disintegrate. When I've used them in this way - after packing them in I've put a mesh bag fill of gravel on top of them).

I have a sand filter hooked up. It still has the sand from being a sand filter. Definitely need to keep it in use all the time due to the stink factor though mine didn't kill any fish, it took a few days for the odor to go away when I left it shut off too long.

If I ever need to re-fill it, I think I would just use gravel.

If you're going to use clay balls or gravel you may as well cut the top off the sand filter and run it as continuous flow gb

+1 to all of the above.........bioballs and coarse river sand would be best ( I used one of those 25L brewing barrels), the only prob I found is they clog up too often in an AP application, I even used bioballs and that polyester doona stuff and turned it into a big fishtank filter and they work a treat and easier to clean

I don't find cleaning (back flushing) the sand filter to be at all difficult, just turn the valve for a few minutes when ever the flow through it seems to have fallen off too much. Then again, I'm not depending on the sand filter for any specific amount of filtration really (it's just kinda there) so who knows if it has gotten channels in it or something, I've never opened it up.

Any set up that requires actual "cleaning" like removing pads and rinsing them out does not appeal to me.

If you use bio-balls you might get away with using a smaller pump as there would be less resistance. Therefore you can run the pump constantly without too much cost, and there wont be any anerobic action.

Cost a hell of a lot KE.
Seen the small slotted ag pipe cut up into short lengths for bio filters, bit of a tedious job though

Just use the bio balls. They don't cost that much and is easier than making your own. Unless you have kids that need punishing.
'You stay in your room until you fill the whole filter'