The Puffer Forum

Will he stay there for life then? How are is the nitrate in there?

Pufferpunk wrote:Will he stay there for life then? How are is the nitrate in there?

No he's not there for life.Maybe until he starts to outgrow it.Then he be back in the 700 even if the RFGGs and others need to be downsized.The nitrates are fine.I use bead filters designed for koi ponds on my large tanks.They are not big bulky and OUTDATED like hudge veggie filters but they do a great job.

Could you please explain the bead filters to us?

LOL, yes, RTR is about as old school as they get.

Pufferpunk wrote:Could you please explain the bead filters to us?

Bead filters are both a mechanical filter and a biological filter.The filter is about half filled with thousands of small plastic beads.These beads are about an eighth of a inch in diameter and float.When the filter is running the water enters the bottom of the fillter, upward through the packed beads, and out the top.The filter has screens on both the top and bottom so that the beads cannot escape.The flow of the water makes the beads pack very tightly to a thickness of over 12".solid waste that enter with the water flow are trapped in the first inches of beads while the rest of the beads provide surface area for the colonizing of the bacteria nessesary for converting amonia and nitrites.Then to clean the filter the beads are stirred up to dislodge the waste and then the water is run through the top and out the bottom rinsing the beads and removing the dirty water which is then plumbed to waste.There are several brands sizes and designs of bead filters using power jets or large blowers to clean the beads but they all clean the same basic way.The filter in this picture contains 2 cubic feet of beads is filtering 3500+ gallons per hour and is designed to filter a 4,000 gallon pond containing up to 200 lbs of fish being fed up to 2 lbs of food fed daily.