fluidized bed filter

[salty chris]

I was given a new Quicksand filter recently and I thought that would put it together tonight. For once in my life I took time to read directions! They stated that this filter contains pure silicate,and to the best of my knowledge Diatoms feed off Silicate. My questions is, has anyone used one of these and had any blooms of algae in the tank and, is it safe to install this after the tank has been established for a long time? (about a year) Will i get any spikes from adding this? (ammonia/nitrite)

[mike_ripple]

If your tank is going good right now, why do you want to add this? These are only practical on very heavily stocked tanks with high bioloads. They are very efficient at converting ammonia to nitrite, to nitrate. Therefore this will elevate nitrates, which are detrimental at high levels to reef tanks. Therefore, I would not use this if you plan on keeping corals. P.S. Check this out. It turns out that silica is actually good for a reef tank. http://advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/feature.htm

[Lrgclasper]

The majority of silica sand is bound and will not leach into the aquarium. It is analagous to putting glass in your tank. I have been using the Lifeguard fluidized bed filter for a few years on a reef tank with moray eels and sharks. The filter has been amazing. No overflow to worry about and actually the nitrates are not a problem largly due to an anerobic bed filter I have made. I disagree that these will produce copious amounts of nitrate-especially when compared with a wet dry. Wet dry filters are so well oxygenated that aerobic bacteria are supercharged and really crank out the nitrates. Fluidized beds do not have the high O2 levels, but do compensate by surface area. The only problem I have had is that you need to make sure a prefilter is in place, otherwise the chamber fills with crap. The other problem is people do not understand them, which is suprising considering many public aquaria utlilize them.