I seem to be missing some thing here. What type of tank is being set up? If its primarily a fish tank, on fish only trickle filters are good, great actually if the fish are messy fish. It would take a tank almost completely filled with live rock and a deep sand bed to handle a large load of really dirty fish. Plus fish can handle a lot more nitrate than coral. Of course I might have missed where he said he was starting a tank for principally corals. If you are going for a dirty fish tank, meaning fish that are generally predatory and messy feeders, not a tank that Will intentionally be dirty, Get a large container that will sit at a level lower than your tank. Put a bulkhead in it near the bottom. Build a platform to hold your bio material at least 4 to 6 inches off the bottom using something like light grating, PVC pipe and fittings, fill to within a couple inches of the top and place a plastic laid on top of your bio materials. Drain water into your bio filter with an overflow and pump out with pump plumbed in outside of your bio filter at your bulkhead fitting. I have seen them made of everything from 300 gallon water plastic water hauling tanks, to plastic trash cans, with everything from hair curlers to rocks used as bio materials. The plate at the top of the filter spreads the flow of your water over a broad area, creating "trickles." The plate should have a grid work of holes drilled in it. The larger the filter, the larger a dirty load that can be handled. All a bubble creator you mentioned would do is aerate your water and the trickle filter will better handle that function as well as filtering. Of course I often come in late after missing something, and if so.......never mind. A deep sand bed is usually only considered a "deep bed" wheN it is over 3-3 1/2" deep. The benifits bacteriologacally for anything shallower than that is usually best handled by live rock, and the medium for sand stars , most worms, wrasses and such is usually considered better when deeper than 2'.
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