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  • Results 1 to 3 of 3

    Thread: 1 bigger or 2 smaller moving beds

    1. #1
      Ben87 is offline Junior Member
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      1 bigger or 2 smaller moving beds

      hi, I'm revamping my pond filtration and planning to run skimmer -> pump -> 2 S&G filters -> moving bed -> waterfall

      Currently, I have a single S&G filter in a 90 gallon trashcan. It's worked great for keeping the water clear, but when cleaning, it doesn't seem to blow evenly, takes a lot of water to flush (harder to keep pond level in acceptable range), and won't handle the full flow of the pump (it's rated for 4200gph but I'm guessing actually flows 3-3.5k). So I think if I replace it with 2 S&G filters in parallel following birdman's design, that will work better.

      My question is whether is whether to repurpose the 90 gallon trashcan for a large moving bed that both S&G filters flow into or to buy 2 more 55 gallon barrels and have each S&G flow into a separate moving bed. I think the 90 gallon would fit plenty of media for the bioload, so that's not the concern. It's primarily whether I'm going to get media sucked to the outlets and cause it to overflow at a 3.5k flow rate. Of course a single moving bed is simpler to plumb, less space, and I already have the 90 gallon available, though.

      Anyone with experience or recommendations on this? 90 gallon trash cans have that weird shape that's kinda square at the top and round at the bottom, so not sure how that geometry might affect things. Also I have a single Hakko 40L air pump, so on either scheme, if I can get by without having to buy another one, that would be a plus.

      Thank you!
      Ben

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    2. #2
      DragonFireSG is offline Senior Member
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      You fell into the oversized S&G trap. Larger, wider containers need a heck lot of high flow, high pressure air to boil - way beyond what most of us have on our residential premises. 2x 55g drums will likely work much better.

      Regarding pumps - your pump is rated at X flow at Y head. Less scrupulous manufactures advertise the performance of their pump at 0 head, which is for most cases meaningless. The pump curve is what you want to look at. It tells you how a pump is expected to perform at a certain static head. Some charts only provide flow vs head. Others will also show power efficiency.

      As for your main question, I think the trash can will do ok as a single large moving bed. I believe a 40lpm pump should do ok at boiling the media.
      You will want to engineer the outlets to not permit media passage. A length of 3 or 4" schedule 40 pipe with thin slits cut into it with an angle grinder will do a good job at retaining media whilst not developing high enough suction to cause media to stick.

    3. #3
      KoiFan84 is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by Ben87 View Post
      hi, I'm revamping my pond filtration and planning to run skimmer -> pump -> 2 S&G filters -> moving bed -> waterfall

      Currently, I have a single S&G filter in a 90 gallon trashcan. It's worked great for keeping the water clear, but when cleaning, it doesn't seem to blow evenly, takes a lot of water to flush (harder to keep pond level in acceptable range), and won't handle the full flow of the pump (it's rated for 4200gph but I'm guessing actually flows 3-3.5k). So I think if I replace it with 2 S&G filters in parallel following birdman's design, that will work better.

      My question is whether is whether to repurpose the 90 gallon trashcan for a large moving bed that both S&G filters flow into or to buy 2 more 55 gallon barrels and have each S&G flow into a separate moving bed. I think the 90 gallon would fit plenty of media for the bioload, so that's not the concern. It's primarily whether I'm going to get media sucked to the outlets and cause it to overflow at a 3.5k flow rate. Of course a single moving bed is simpler to plumb, less space, and I already have the 90 gallon available, though.

      Anyone with experience or recommendations on this? 90 gallon trash cans have that weird shape that's kinda square at the top and round at the bottom, so not sure how that geometry might affect things. Also I have a single Hakko 40L air pump, so on either scheme, if I can get by without having to buy another one, that would be a plus.

      Thank you!
      Ben
      Check out birdman’s moving bed thread in quick links google search it’s a 55 gallon barrel, but it’s capacity is on 2K gph flow I think, so 2 barrels would be ideal. You would need 2 Alita 40 air pumps. Alita is a good price and quality. They have them for $160 webbs watergatdens. The moving bed uses hamster balls on the inlet and outlet pipes to preven K1 2 or 3 media from escaping through the inner pipes

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