Question about fine sand substrate and FX6 filter.

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philipraposo1982

philipraposo1982

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Feb 21, 2016
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Good Morning,

I have a 75g, the substrate is caribsea moonlight sand. I have some smaller natural gravel mixed in as well. Filter is a fx6 (3 months old), my fish while eating off the bottom or searching for food will sift the sand and stir it up on a regular basis. I would imagine this will only become worse as he grows bigger and bigger (green terror).

So what is the damage of these light particles of sand being sucked up the intake of the filter, is it going to eventually destroy my fx6? will it be fine? Anything that I should consider doing?

Thanks
 
The impeller will get marred, and sooner or later you'll start hearing it louder and louder. Not a huge deal, you can replace them very easily. A prefilter sponge on the intake will help delay this but its inevitable.
 
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so if you had to guess expect timing for this to occur, we talking like years? another 3 months?

also if there a sand I could use that if more suited for a fish who likes to move it and eat from it? want it to be fine enough to not hinder him but heavy enough to stay down better.
 
philipraposo1982 said:
so if you had to guess expect timing for this to occur, we talking like years? another 3 months?

also if there a sand I could use that if more suited for a fish who likes to move it and eat from it? want it to be fine enough to not hinder him but heavy enough to stay down better.
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well mine is still going strong after a year or so, I haven't heard the impeller yet and I have sand in my tank. Pool filter sand is heavy and harder to stir up. That's what I use in my tanks. cichlids should have no issue sifting it.
 
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I never had a problem with an fx6 and sand. I had the Tahitian moon sand which is very fine too. Whenever I did a full canister cleaning I would find a little bit inside of it but never had any impeller or motor issues bc of it.
 
I kept my FX5 intake strainer a good 4 or 5" off the substrate and always found some sand in the filter necessitating disassembling the pump to clean during filter maintenance but saw/heard no damage to the impeller.
 
Just follow the instructions in the manual as they are well written. You will need a long shaft phillips screwdriver to remove the pump from the canister body.
 
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