I Hate Sand :(

[dane]

So I'm watching tv and i hear my one of my filters start grinding and being really noisy . I was like great ! so i turn on the light and unplug the filter ended up being sand in the filter . One of the fish must have kicked it up and got it in somewhow.. after taking it apart and cleaning it put it back on and it still was doing that .Well after another cleaning of it its not grinding but still alot louder than my others so its kind of ruined my filer :( . I ended up taking out all of my sand and im buying gravel . what i thought was weird was alot of my fish colored up more than they have been when i took out the sand . I thought darker colored substrate was supposed to bring there colors out . i had black sand i guess not ? anyways just needed to rant about it . To me sand is not worth the potential risks it involves especially when it can ruin filters that cost 50 plus bucks .

[i_am_511]

How close was your sand to your filter? And what kinda sand was it? Im asking cause there is more to it then just this too many people have had good things with sand and there is ways to get around your problem.Too late now tho just saying i had my intake just a couple inches from the sand and well not a good idea

[dane]

there about id say maybe 12 inches down its a 24 inch tall tank and they look about half way so a full foot from the bottom oh and its caribsea Tahitian moon sand

[Aeonflame]

I use pool filter sand and, the particles are too heavy to go very far. my filter intakes are only a few inches from the bottom, and that has never happened to me.

[VoidParadigm]

How in the world did the sand get up twelve inches? Do you have a fish who stirs it up? In any case, heavier grains are the way to go.

[kaybee]

I use sand and in my 180gal the filter intakes are about 12" above the level of the sand and sand still makes it's way into the filter intakes.

My c. moorii love to sand sift, they'll take a mouthful of sand and on occasion will spit it out when they have swam near the vicinity of the intakes. My mbuna's in other tanks will also do this every now and then as well.

Also when my large frontosa's are acting feisty they can kick up sand above the level of the filter intakes.

When any of these two event occur the filter will make a gritting noise, but only for a few seconds.

I've never had sand incapacitate a filter though (I use Aquaclear's). I think only once or twice in the last 5 years have I had to immediately address sand effecting the performance of the impeller (the gritting noise lasted more than a few seconds in duration).

[Lady Hobbs]

I had firemouths in my sand tank and they pick up the sand and spit it out all the time shifting for food. Half the time they'd be spitting the sand out right in front of the strainer. If you think the filter is picking it up, lay some rocks on the sand under the strainer.

[HeatherB]

I really liked sand in my tank, but it was a beast to clean. I used playsand. When I took it all out, I found all kinds of nasty in it. It was good for my betta tank though.

I don't know, maybe I'll try again if I can find some larger grain sand. Where do you guys get yours?

[dane]

thanks guys yea i use the aquaclears too all of my fish are constantly spitting sand moving sand etc im kinda afraid to put more sand in there so pool filter sand are larger grains ? they dont get tossed up so easily ?

[i_am_511]

So far ive seen most people love pool filter sand the best out of all sand. Play sand is a NO NO. My 75 gallon has 100lbs of pool filter sand in it and i recently added 5 or 10lbs of black to it. My next tank im gonna try to get a good mixed with the white and black sand. Some people say white sand cause the fish to white out and then i heard black sand gets them to color up good. But ive heard of people with the same answers but flipped.

[chronic]

Lol, my goldfish are a$$holes and spit sand right into my filter inlet. I have it 6" above the sand, and last week I woke up twice to the filter stalled out because of them doing that. I've seen them! lol I hate it.

[jackson17]

Sand always got in my filters, never broke it though. I did have pool filter sand, maybe thats why?

[korweabo0]

something i've heard from people is to use small sponges like the kind AquaClear filters use and cut a small hole, small enough for you to place it over your filter intake.

it helps a lot(i would assume), but it may slow down the water from being sucked into the filter.

i'm going to be getting sand for my new upcomming tank, but since this thread came up - i'll have to find some rocks to place near my filters as well as putting in some nice sponges on my intakes.

[dane]

something i've heard from people is to use small sponges like the kind AquaClear filters use and cut a small hole, small enough for you to place it over your filter intake.

it helps a lot(i would assume), but it may slow down the water from being sucked into the filter.

i'm going to be getting sand for my new upcomming tank, but since this thread came up - i'll have to find some rocks to place near my filters as well as putting in some nice sponges on my intakes.

thanks for the suggestion :) but thats what im meaning to me its just not worth the drawbacks i might have doing that and the uglyness of having a piece of foam over my intakes.. to everyone else i think im just gonna get gravel . but now im in a dilemma the black colored substrate def does not enhance there colors as my fish are so much colorful now that there is no anything in the tank so does anyone have any pics of gravel that makes african cichlids pop .. was thinking white but have heard its really hard to keep it clean ?

[Scrup]

FWIW I use a black round foam made for pond pumps, blends in perfectly with the pumps and I have never had sand in any of my HOB's.

I can tell you white does bleach them out. I have crushed coral in mine and they are all faded looking...

[scotty]

i use a nylon stocking over my intakes , i had the same problem before i did this
i hope this helps

[Mith]

I'm becoming disalusioned with my sand. My plants are just sucking! I put lots of fert tabs around the plants, but I suspect the ferts, even after disolved, are not permiating the sand to the roots.

Its a tough call to get rid of it, not because removing it would be hard (easily siphoned out) but because I just love the looks of the sand.

I can't help but wonder if your sand is too fine. 12" should be plenty high from the intake to your sand and if its still accessing your filter......I'm guessing your sand is really fine. Do you know what size it is???

[Lady Hobbs]

So far ive seen most people love pool filter sand the best out of all sand. Play sand is a NO NO. My 75 gallon has 100lbs of pool filter sand in it and i recently added 5 or 10lbs of black to it. My next tank im gonna try to get a good mixed with the white and black sand. Some people say white sand cause the fish to white out and then i heard black sand gets them to color up good. But ive heard of people with the same answers but flipped.

I wouldn't exactly call playsand a no-no when thousands of people use it in their tanks. Perhaps play sand is different grains for different brand names? My play sand was plenty heavy and fell right to the bottom of the tank. I run the sipthon over the top of it and the vac would not pick it up.

I bought some of the white, fine sand that was a whole different matter and had to remove it within a couple weeks.

I no longer use any sand. I had too much trouble with algae and phosphates due to already high phosphates in my tap water.

[Mith]

I wouldn't exactly call playsand a no-no when thousands of people use it in their tanks. Perhaps play sand is different grains for different brand names? My play sand was plenty heavy and fell right to the bottom of the tank. I run the sipthon over the top of it and the vac would not pick it up.

I bought some of the white, fine sand that was a whole different matter and had to remove it within a couple weeks.

I no longer use any sand. I had too much trouble with algae and phosphates due to already high phosphates in my tap water.


My sand is turning brown (diatoms?) And its no longer pretty. One way or another I'm going to get healthy plants even if I have to remove my sand!!!!!

[dane]

My sand is turning brown (diatoms?) And its no longer pretty. One way or another I'm going to get healthy plants even if I have to remove my sand!!!!!

good luck Mith . i was having trouble with the plants and sand also . Plus my big albino kept digging them up and i realllly want live plants !! i need to find a way to make it work

[dane]

I'm becoming disalusioned with my sand. My plants are just sucking! I put lots of fert tabs around the plants, but I suspect the ferts, even after disolved, are not permiating the sand to the roots.

Its a tough call to get rid of it, not because removing it would be hard (easily siphoned out) but because I just love the looks of the sand.

I can't help but wonder if your sand is too fine. 12" should be plenty high from the intake to your sand and if its still accessing your filter......I'm guessing your sand is really fine. Do you know what size it is???

it was the caribsea super naturals Tahitian moon sand that i had dont know the size though