Sand In The Impelller?

[FishLover14]

My tank has sand in it and the snad gets sucked up into the filter when the fish agitate it and get excited which is a lot and when i move the fake plants and move the rocks-I have to clean the filter once a week. Is thier naything i can do? Also some sand will come to the top of my aquaruim and just sit there and float for a day or so will a power head make it sink. This sand i have is beatiful but it is driving me nuts!!!! TIA

 

[jsoong]

You don't want sand in your impeller - it'll wear out your pump quickly. People put sponge filter over the filter intake to prevent this.

Can't find the thread right now, but a DIY way is to freeze a block of filter sponge (wet), then drill the appropriate sized hole half way into the sponge while it is still frozen. Thaw & slip the sponge over your intake.

 

[xray]

Buy an aquaclear filter and cut an X in the one end . It will fit over the intake of the filter.
jsoong what do you drill with. :? That all seems a bit much.

 

[Frank_the_Tank]

also rememeber to clean the sponge over the intake regularly, it will clog with sand and everything else your filter takes out.

 

[FishLover14]

buy a whole different filter? i herad somehwere u can rubberband a sponge to it but then it would inhibit mechanical filtration wouldnt it. Should i jsut get rid of the sand?

Thanks everyone.

 

[jsoong]

I *think* xray meant the aquaclear filter sponge .... not the whole filter!

The thread said to use a regular spade wood bit for the drilling, I suppose a frosner will prob be better ... the freezing is just to harden the sponge so the bit will bite. I guess cutting an X on the sponge would work too, just not as snug a fit.

The sponge won't inhibit mechenical filtration ... It IS additional filtration! Think of it as a prefilter like in a sump setup. The sponge will inhibit the flow a bit tho, esp. when clogged, so you'll have to do regular cleaning of the sponge.

You can decrease the problem with the resistence of the sponge by having a larger/longer intake & a larger sponge <bigger area for the water to flow through = less resistence, bigger sponge = less frequent cleaning>.... but then it depends on what filter you have as to how you can modify the intake.

 

[FishLover14]

Ok illl buy an aqauclear sponge soon. Will crushed coral cloud water BTW?


Thanks everyone!

 

[severum mama]

If you're interested in crushed coral, did you know that it will raise the pH of your water? A lot of people use it for African cichlids or other fish that need a high pH. I don't keep Africans so I don't know too much about it myself.
I have pool filter sand in my 35 gallon and I love it. I think the grains are larger than the grains in play sand- which I assume is what you have. My sand never gets sucked up in my filter, and is also too heavy for my Python to suck up. If you really like the look of sand maybe you should try it. JMO

 

[youronlysin]

Bear with me, Im gonna say the word filter a lot. Dont replace the whole filter, thats just silly. Just use a sponge pre-filter over the intake tube. I have an open celled foam sponge (sponge filter from an AquaClear power filter) over the intake of my AquaClear 200, and in my fry tank, I have a very fine celled foam(SandShark replacement foam filter) over the intake of my Whisper filter. I turn off the filters when I clean the tanks or do any maintenance. With the filters off, just remove the sponges and wash them off. This also makes the normal filter inside the units last a lot longer as well! Try raising the intake tube a bit if it sits close to the bottom. Turn the filter off when you do tank maintenance.

Washing your sand and rinsing off the fine particles before you put it in your tank will prevent this from happening, most of the time. Put a bit of sand in a bucket of water and stir the sand while running water over it. Allow the water to run out of the bucket and carry away the finer sand as you do this. This will minimize the settling time and greatly reduce the amount of sand that gets stirred up. Even in my 2 gallon hex betta container with sand substrate, I can do a 50 percent water change and not stir up the sand while dumping water back in the tank with a bucket.

Sand doesnt have to be a difficult substrate to use, preparing it correctly can save a lot of time and effort in the future. Hope you can get it cleaned up without too much work! Good luck!

 

[thanew]

hey

i found really the best way to do it is to cut the intake as much as possible (bring it as high up as you possibly can) and maybe for a few days or so have something over it like a sponge or a pantyhose to keep things out.

in all honesty you can't expect to not have any sand in your filter, but when it starts killing your impeller you have a problem. I mean some say there aren't any filters that aren't "sand filters" i beg to differ with them, the one that came with my 55 gal didnt seem to like sand at all, but then again it depends on the coarseness of your sand.

hopefully you get this settled along with your catfish

-thane

 

[FishLover14]

thanks everyone. I do not have play sand i have professional aqauruim sand it is very $$$. Until i order the sponge i will just clean i t regularrllly and watch. Some of the reason it is so bad is i put the sand in the tank when changing it from sand to gravel. So it was dry and it cloogeed the impeellers fast! Good idea thanew i think i will try pantyhose first as they are cheaper i have my intake up pretty high.

SeverumMama the next tank i get will have a gravel/Crushed Coral mix in it so i wont have to worry about it.

Thanks everyone!

Dan