What type of filter is best in a tank with sand substrate?

[xoniac]

Getting a 55g tomorrow for my discus and was considering switching to sand. What kind of filter do you guys suggest? I know sand will destroy HoB filters.......

[jimg]

I thought sand might harm the filters but the intakes are usually high enough and sand has not bothered any of mine. I use aquaclear 110 on a 50 along with a sponge filter. You could use an aquaclear 70 and a sponge or 2 if you have adults, but I like the 110 for juveniles (more feedings). I am not one for canister filters without other means of generous aeration. but the canisters i always liked the best are eheim

[Darrell Ward]

2 HydroSponge III's, or an AquaClear 110 make excellent filters for a 55 gal. A smallish tank like a 55 never needs a canister filter. You can do large water changes quickly on such tanks, making heavy filtration unnecessary.

[xoniac]

Thanks guys! I think I'm going to go ahead and try with the pre-filter sponge like you mentioned. Sounds like a lot of people here and other places have had good luck with that.

[Moray]

Hi xoniax, I can only speak from my own experience and a new aqua clear 110 that I put on a couple of months ago with a quite coarse sand substrate on my 75 gallon tank sounds like something is constantly being ground up in the filter. IT MAKES A LOT OF NOISE. I have a sponge filter on the intake and have tried all different levels from putting the sponge filter directly on the intake right at the filter to using one or both intakes pieces that come with the filter. It doesn,t seem to make a difference. I have cleaned that motor out along with the filter box so many times already and sometimes it will be quiet for a little while but by the next morning at the most it is back to the grinding noise. As soon as I can afford a 2217 eheim that aqua clear is history. With a coarser substrate I have had no problems with the Aqua Clear but with sand .... my advice is go with a canister filter...Ray

[Moray]

Hi xoniax, I can only speak from my own experience and a new aqua clear 110 that I put on a couple of months ago with a quite coarse sand substrate on my 75 gallon tank sounds like something is constantly being ground up in the filter. IT MAKES A LOT OF NOISE. I have a sponge filter on the intake and have tried all different levels from putting the sponge filter directly on the intake right at the filter to using one or both intakes pieces that come with the filter. It doesn,t seem to make a difference. I have cleaned that motor out along with the filter box so many times already and sometimes it will be quiet for a little while but by the next morning at the most it is back to the grinding noise. As soon as I can afford a 2217 eheim that aqua clear is history. With a coarser substrate I have had no problems with the Aqua Clear but with sand .... my advice is go with a canister filter...Ray

[discuspaul]

You'll be just fine with an AC 110, using a pre-filter sponge, and keeping the filter intake tube well off the sand - at least several inches. And you can't go wrong with white silica PF sand. Try it - works extremely well for me.

[Harriett]

Just my 2 cents of clarification: I think you can use an aquaclear or you can use a canister successfully. The issues are these: the intake has to be off the substrate by several inches at least, and putting a fine sponge prefilter on the intake will catch whatever ditrius floats up, including sand. The key issue is the type of sand you use for your substrate, IME. Common play sand [coarser but not heavy] tends to float more when disturbed and has particulate matter that is a pain to eliminate. Pool sand [silica] is a smaller but HEAVIER weight grain and it doesn't float around. It sinks. It stays down. I have used pool sand with both of these types of filters with ZERO problems long term--no noise, no grinding--just get the intake off the floor and put a decent prefilter on for all the obvious reasons and you should be good to go. It is prudent to pull your filter impeller and clean it and the basin it sits in on a regular basis--if you have snails in the sand, all the more reason to do this--teeny baby snails have a way of getting in there too sometimes, with the same outcome for the impeller assembly.
Best regards,
Harriett

[Darrell Ward]

Just my 2 cents of clarification: I think you can use an aquaclear or you can use a canister successfully. The issues are these: the intake has to be off the substrate by several inches at least, and putting a fine sponge prefilter on the intake will catch whatever ditrius floats up, including sand. The key issue is the type of sand you use for your substrate, IME. Common play sand [coarser but not heavy] tends to float more when disturbed and has particulate matter that is a pain to eliminate. Pool sand [silica] is a smaller but HEAVIER weight grain and it doesn't float around. It sinks. It stays down. I have used pool sand with both of these types of filters with ZERO problems long term--no noise, no grinding--just get the intake off the floor and put a decent prefilter on for all the obvious reasons and you should be good to go. It is prudent to pull your filter impeller and clean it and the basin it sits in on a regular basis--if you have snails in the sand, all the more reason to do this--teeny baby snails have a way of getting in there too sometimes, with the same outcome for the impeller assembly.
Best regards,
Harriett

I agree. The only time I've ever had any problems with pool filter sand getting into a pump was when I had an AquaClear 110 on a 75 gal tank full of Geos. Their constant digging caused sand to trash the pump. With normal fish that don't "eat" sand, you should never have a problem.

[fast93accord]

Hi xoniax, I can only speak from my own experience and a new aqua clear 110 that I put on a couple of months ago with a quite coarse sand substrate on my 75 gallon tank sounds like something is constantly being ground up in the filter. IT MAKES A LOT OF NOISE. I have a sponge filter on the intake and have tried all different levels from putting the sponge filter directly on the intake right at the filter to using one or both intakes pieces that come with the filter. It doesn,t seem to make a difference. I have cleaned that motor out along with the filter box so many times already and sometimes it will be quiet for a little while but by the next morning at the most it is back to the grinding noise. As soon as I can afford a 2217 eheim that aqua clear is history. With a coarser substrate I have had no problems with the Aqua Clear but with sand .... my advice is go with a canister filter...Ray

That grinding noise is simple to fix. If you take the impeller out you will notice it rides on a shaft. That shaft pulls out with needlenose. What u will see is that shaft will be rough. You can use fine file on the shaft to smooth it out, if your good, or spend $5 and order a new one. At one time sand got into there... Obviously. Oh, and stick dental floss through the impeller hole to make sure its clear.