thinking about using a pressurized sand filter

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wheatgerm

wheatgerm

Plecostomus
MFK Member
May 22, 2010
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utah
so im building a 1000 gallon tank as soon as i get everything planned out.. my buddy turned my onto filtering it with a hayward pressurized sand filter (for pools) so pretty much all my water would dump into my sump going threw a filter sock first.. then in the sump i would just have a bunch of nitrate eating plants, next it would go to my pump, then threw the pool filter and finally back up to the tank.. i was just wondering if anyone have every used one of these and pros and cons?? it really sounds alot easier than building a bunch of stages in the sump or even building a bio tower of some sort
 
I was tried of the sump so I went pressurized. Works great with high flow rate. I wouldn't use sand in it though. Also needs a separate mechanical filter.
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wheatgerm;4746615; said:
the one i will be getting looks alot like that except it doesnt have a pump. my pump is actually what will be running my filter. and why wouldnt you put sand in it? isnt that the whole point of it being a pressurized sand filter?
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How big is your pump? I have a 1/15hp Wave with basically very little back pressure. In the industry, the sand filter container is converted into a bead filter not to be used with sand.
Sand will polish the water but requires a higher pressure pump to push the water through it. Once clogged channelling occurs and on rare occassion air gets compressed to a point where it gets into the fish blood stream causing air/gas bubble disease. I've seen it in koi ponds.
Also backwashing sand will probably drain all the water in your tank. I've opened koi pond sand filters and the sand is compressed like a block of concrete.
I guess "pressurized" is not a good term to use. "Closed loop" is probably better. I get your point.
 
Sand filters not much chop on fish .... get a proper bead filter which is the same concept but has little beads instead of sand designed for fish.
 
my pump is pretty good sized.. i think its a evo 4500 if i remember right? so with a bead filter will it still hold all the bio and bacteria?? and i was planning on backwashing my sand every week when i did a waterchange by using my pump and making the process very quick since ill be changing about 500 gallons per week lol
 
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