Sand and filters

[n3wt]

Ok, I have had sand in my tank for a few months now and for those few months I have gone through many expensive filters.
I've read many forum posts and surfed around online about cutting the tubing and making it to where the intake is close to the surface so it wont get sand but it still does. I have tried pantyhose, those filter socks you buy in the store and they don't get the sand out. I have gone through 2 Penguin Bio-Wheel 350 filters and 1 Eheim Ecco 2234 canister and now my 2236 is dying on me.
Anyone have any suggestions on how to stop sand from ruining filters, or do I have no choice and need to switch my substrait?

 

[Taelen]

Hmm...I have a Penguin Biowheel and two Aquaclear filters and I haven't had any issues (all my tanks are sand). Not sure what the issue could be.

 

[Zagz]

What kind of fish are you keeping? What size of tank?

 

[n3wt]

I have a 55g tank with about 12 Misc Africans, mostly peacocks, in it.

 

[Zagz]

I have a 125 gal african tank and I have a fluval 404 and a fluval FX5. Both do get some sand in their cannisters but never enough to cause a problem.

 

[Sum22]

Have you thought about clearing the sand away from the filter intake? Basically, I'd try creating a large divot in the sand to see if it stops it from taking in so much sand.

Have you tried moving the intake higher off the bottom of the tank?

You could try to find a sand that is more coarse?

 

[Mudfrog]

First question is what type of sand? I had the same problem and destroyed two AC110's but I was using playground sand which is very fine and floats very easily. After getting fed up I went back to rocks. Well just recently I moved back to sand in two of my tanks but this time I'm using pool filter sand and it's much much better then playground sand. The particles are just big enough to where they do not move much, if they get kicked up they immediately settle down.

Just a thought.