I wonder why no sand filters are ever used in home aquariums?

[Stan510]

Watching a video of a public aquarium in Columbia and they use large sand filters. All the public aquariums use sand filters for the last century. So,how did it become they were never adapted to the large home aquariums or Koi ponds? What's with all that trickle filter,floating media,plastic scrubbers?
Planted tanks with very few fish,i know a canister is good enough. But so many people are out there with 100 gallons and much more of Cichlids and a big sand filter would handle that easy. None are sold for the home.

 

[OliveFish05]

I was just wondering that! I know that our sand filter for our little pool needs to be backwashed or something, and it is definitely messy, gets water everywhere. You can get hoses for that though.

 

[Mcostas]

When I was a kid diatom filters were popular. Not sure if that's kind of the same thing or not.

 

[DoubleDutch]

I think plain sandfilters are used for mechanical filtering (debris) and hardly for biological filtering (they don't provide space for bacteria) which is needed for a tank (vs a pool)

The public aquarium-systems use a range of basins in which this biological filtering takes place.

So it is a question of space I'd say. If you've the space to place such basins you'll be okay.

 

[GaryE]

I've had the fun of getting behind the scenes in public aquariums, and while sand filtration is used, it's part of a more complex system.
I have seen home use sand filters. There was a German company selling them maybe 20 years ago, for use with plumbed systems. They were kind of large relative to the size of the tanks they serviced. Think washing machine sized. They also called for fairly large water pumps, and were very expensive.

 

[Uberhoust]

Sand filters are typically larger and have to have systems to back flush, or clean the filter. I too have wondered why they are not used. I have used the diatom filters in the past. My father and I never used them as a continuous filter method but primarily to clean up an issue like a bacteria bloom.

 

[GaryE]

diatoms were used a lot by photographers to polish the water for particles in the expensive film days. They get hot and aren't effective as day to day filters - they were purely mechanical in their use.
I don't think they survived photoshop.

 

[Stan510]

I posted on my "Discus are a money pit" a vid of an amatuer Discus breeder who filters his many 30/40 gallon or so breeder tanks with a Sand filter that moves A LOT of water.

My idea is a scaled down filter for larger home aquariums. Not giant aquariums but you know 100+ gallons. They make some powerful pumps these days that do not cost so much to run.
Did you know that Ohio Fish Rescue still runs that pool sand filter? Even after that giant reverse flow undergravel filter was installed.

 

[gilpi]

I'm assuming sand is too tight, not enough flow especially after it gets just a bit dirty. Can be used temporarily as a mechanical filter not a biological filter