Sand And Filter Issues

[CKutz]

I'm having the worst luck with sand and filters..

here's the situation. I've put play sand in my tank, it had an old used filter, but worked really well. eventually it started making this awful grinding/groaning noise. so i got a new impeller. shortly after putting in the new impeller, it started making the noise again.

So i said to hell with it, and i picked up a used penguin 350 biowheel. to protect the impeller i cut a hole in a sponge and stuck it on the intake. the filter can't pull water through quickly enough to turn the biowheels but i don't really care.
the problem is that the sponge has already gotten so gunked up that the filter is hardly working half as well as it should be. like i see stuff float by the intake without getting sucked up. my old filter did better.

the sponge i used i believe is intended for a canister filter or something..it was a big rectangular block, with tons of small holes in it.

So i need a new idea for some way to prevent sand from screwing up the impeller, without blocking up the filter.
any suggestions?

 

[MrWhite]

Try cover the intake with fine filter floss thats what i done

 

[JakeKM]

Perhaps on the old filter it was not the impeller but the impeller shaft that had worn down over the years, allowing the impeller to shake (i had the same problem a while back).
-Got a new filter (sand still there) and never had any problems.

 

[Curiosity101]

I found my filter got really gunked up really quickly when I made the switch to sand. I just rinsed it every couple of days until the problem cleared. I figured I must've not washed the sand as well as I thought I did.
It did make a tiny bit of a grinding noise, but regular cleanings seemed to keep it in good working order...

Not sure I had exactly the same problem as you, but hope this might help

 

[CKutz]

i'm convinced it's because of the sand getting stirred up when i change the water, because i had a relatively new 10 gal filter on that i had running just to aid with filtration and incase i set up a new tank. this filter started making the noise also.

I've tried taking apart the impeller and cleaning it out, cleaning off the shaft..idk what else to do. the shaft is worn down, as is the outside of the magnet.
once i put the new filter on i took the 10 gal filter off and noticed there was actually sand built up in the filter. like in the box, and probably in the hole that the impeller sits in.

what do you mean by filter floss? like pillow stuff?

i just really do not want to ruin another filter. their too expensive. And I go back and forth to school and this tank has to stay here, so i can count on my little brother for simple maintenance, but not really cleaning out filters and stuff.

 

[CKutz]

bump

 

[OldMan47]

Sand is very hard on a filter impeller if it gets into the filter. On a HOB filter, the impeller is the first thing that the water flow gets to. The clearances between the impeller magnet and the plastic housing it sits in are usually very small so the individual grains of sand set up a grinder that works on the parts and ends up destroying them. That means that any HOB filter that has the inlet fitting too close to the sand will end up ruined in fairly short order. If you must use a HOB filter your options are to pre-filter the water, which you have tried, or to get the inlet tube far enough from the sand that none of it gets sucked up. While the tank is just sitting with the filter running this could be a stable situation but right after a tank cleaning some sand will be suspended in the water. The only thing I can see that would work in that circumstance would be to leave the filter off until the sand settles.
Other options that are unaffected by small amounts of sand include sponge filters and canister filters. A sponge filter running on air has no moving parts and if it is running on a power head, the power head is protected by the filter. A canister puts the impeller last in the flow path, after the water has gone through all of the stages of filtration, which keeps the impeller safe from the sand.

 

[CKutz]

Thanks for the reply, sorry i haven't been on for a bit.

i forgot about the powerhead/sponge filter idea. I could get an adequate powerhead for a 30 gal right?

I the last waterchange i did i let the tank settle for awhile before turning the filter back on, and it seems to have worked alright cause the biowheels are actually spinning still.

Canisters are so expensive. I was thinking about getting one if i could find a cheap one, but i needed something to replace the messed up filters so i got another HOB. Also i wasn't sure how canisters were set up, if the sand would get to it just the same as the impeller of a HOB. Thanks for the info!