Is there an aquarium filter out there that is “sand safe” and can handle sand going through it?
by Aquaboy on Sunday, March 28th, 2010 | 2 Comments
I am thinking about putting a sand substrate in my 10 gallon tank. Is there a filter out there that can handle some sand going through it? If so which one?
Im just saying when i stir up the sand to clean it, is there a filter that can handle that sand
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most filters are ok
the sand should stay on the bottom
just not under gravel filters
EDIT: i still stir up my sand and its fine with my internal filters
Actually the problem with sand and filters is not the filter itself but the pump in the filter. Pump are such precision mechanism nowadays that if sand gets into any of the revolving and rotating parts, the wear and tear will be much more serious and faster compared to when its under normal operation. Which means that effectiveness or efficiency of the filter will drop.
In serious case when bigger grain of gravel gets suck into a filter, it could even stop the pump from working (remember Nemo?). What you could do is to move the inlet of the filter as high to the water line as possible and any drifting sand (if they manage to flow that high) should be small enough that it wouldn’t beyond the capability of most filter to handle.
Anyway to answer the question is, any filter that has a pre-filter before the water reaches the pump would be free from such problem (Over/Under flow filtration or gravity fed sump/filter). Otherwise most filter will suffer from sand being suck into it to certain extend.