I just set up an african cichlid 50g tank. I have an AC110 on the tank for filtration. I put sand in the tank as my substrate. The problem I have is that my africans love to stir up the sand and it is ending up in my filter. I put a media filter bag over the intake tube to see if this will stop the sand from getting into the filter. The larger particles are now clinging to the media bag. Is this going to cause a problem with restricting my flow on the filter? I have to do something to keep the sand out but I don't want to cause problems with the proper flow rate either. Any suggestions?
Sand in AC110
- Thread starter lighthouse39183
- Start date
Do you know the grade of your sand? I don't know mine but there are differences.
Also what kind of sand did you get? Well rinsed before adding it to the tank?
I've got multi-purpose sand in my tanks and use cut AC sponges over the intakes of all of my filters, including an AC 110. Haven't had to deal with sand in my AC 110, just yet.
Also what kind of sand did you get? Well rinsed before adding it to the tank?
I've got multi-purpose sand in my tanks and use cut AC sponges over the intakes of all of my filters, including an AC 110. Haven't had to deal with sand in my AC 110, just yet.
Well I couldn't find any sand around here except some play sand at Walmart. I sifted the sand to remove all the larger pebbles and rinsed it very good. I guess it is a very fine grade sand and the fish keep stirring it up and the filter is able to suck it up.
its going to get into the impeller and your filter will become noisy as sh1t!! Sounds like your sand is too fine. My sand sinks immediatley and is "heavy" try Pool filter sand. It comes prerinsed and looks like this:
No I haven't tried that. The intake is already pretty short on the AC110. I really don't want to have to cut the intake if I don't have to. I feel like that might filter only the top part of the tank. Here's some pics of the intake with the media bag over it and some of the sand. You can see how the fish keep stirring it up and causing the grate under it to show.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1712&pictureid=19683
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1712&pictureid=19682
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1712&pictureid=19685
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1712&pictureid=19684
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1712&pictureid=19686
I guess some of my fish wanted to have their picture taken too. Lol
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1712&pictureid=19683
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1712&pictureid=19682
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1712&pictureid=19685
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1712&pictureid=19684
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1712&pictureid=19686
I guess some of my fish wanted to have their picture taken too. Lol
Thank you. I guess I can go the local pool store and see if they have some sand. I really like the color of the sand you have in your tank. It looks like your intake tube is pretty low in the water too.
I have a 55g with about 55lbs of super fine Caribsea sand in it. I'm running two AC 70's on the tank and IME over the past year I've had my ups and downs with the sand. My fish stir it up constantly, but for the most part if you just make sure to clean out your impellers, shaft and housing every few weeks, you should be fine.
Since it's impossible to keep every granule of sand out of your filter, you will experience some noise from your AC. You will prob find that it's super quiet sometimes, super annoyingly loud at others, or somewhere in the middle. I would drive myself crazy trying to clean and overclean mine when they got super annoying, but found that in a day or so, the noise subsided on it's own. My advice is, don't go nuts with it, the impeller/motor will eventually quiet on it's own.
If you stick with the fine sand, hope that helps a little, good luck.
Since it's impossible to keep every granule of sand out of your filter, you will experience some noise from your AC. You will prob find that it's super quiet sometimes, super annoyingly loud at others, or somewhere in the middle. I would drive myself crazy trying to clean and overclean mine when they got super annoying, but found that in a day or so, the noise subsided on it's own. My advice is, don't go nuts with it, the impeller/motor will eventually quiet on it's own.
If you stick with the fine sand, hope that helps a little, good luck.
It helps alot. Thank you. At least the fine sand is being pushed into the filter chamber where the media is. That lets me know that it shouldn't accumulate in the impeller. At least I don't think it will. But I would still like to stop any sand from getting in there. I just checked the filter and the media bag was restricting the flow. I pulled it away from the intake tube and the flow increased. The AC110 wasn't quiet straight from the box brand new. I think the fine sand from the biomax being in the box got into the impeller and no matter how much I clean it it still makes a grinding noise. It's not any louder now than it was brand new. Should I just remove the media bag from the intake tube? I really hate the even think about scooping this sand out and putting more in.