Thoughts on filters for Shell dwellers?

[yhbae]

The tank I'm setting up is a 15g with the base measurement of 24x12 inches. I have two old AquaClear Minis that I was going to use for this tank then I remembered these filters don't do well in tanks with sands. If I am going to stick some pre-filter sponges to them, it will probably restrict water flow and overall filtration may not be sufficient.

I am also thinking of a sponge filter but I generally use those for fry tanks and also when I want to move bacteria from an existing tank to a new one. I don't like the lack of water flow when only sponge filters are used. Plus, sponge filters tend to have a large footprint which is not great for shell dweller tanks.

I am now thinking of putting one sponge filter and one AquaClear mini. I will still need to put something on the intake of AC, may be a coarse sponge.

What do you guys think?

 

[jpappy789]

I use an AC 20 (is that what you mean by mini?) on my 10 gallon and it does just fine with sand. Although I think the flow is a little too much.

 

[yhbae]

Yeah I think what used to be called mini is now called 20. I used it on my 10g too for frys but my frys were from mbuna and their frys were big enough that I only had to put a net around the intake which does not reduce the overall water flow.

How small are the frys of shellies? I would think they are much smaller than mbuna frys, correct? if I use the regular net (mosquito nets), that would be too big?

 

[toddnbecka]

An aquaclear sponge block (cut a slit in it to fir over intake) works well for me.

 

[reefplayground]

I've set-up aqua clears on many sanded tanks, including a ac mini and an ac500 on a 10g with no problems.

But if you are really worried, why not simply hook up a couple Hydor nano or 1 size powerheads on the tank and have enough sand/rock material in there to support bacteria and bam, a nice looking tank.

 

[yhbae]

May be I had one bad isolated incident with AquaClear on a tank with sand substrate. One day, it just stopped working and I lost some fishes in it - it happened during the long weekend when we were away. When I took the filter apart, I had some sand in it and when I read on the net, I confirmed those filters don't do well when sand enters into the filter.

I think I am over-paranoid...

 

[yhbae]

I've set-up aqua clears on many sanded tanks, including a ac mini and an ac500 on a 10g with no problems.

But if you are really worried, why not simply hook up a couple Hydor nano or 1 size powerheads on the tank and have enough sand/rock material in there to support bacteria and bam, a nice looking tank.

I have lots of experience using sponge filter with air stones so I am comfortable with those. They seem to work well from biological filtering perspective but oh boy, are they ugly to look at... :evil_lol: Hence I don't use them in show tanks. But I always use them in fry/raise tanks.

 

[jpappy789]

You'll rarely see shellie fry, as most stay hidden in the shell pile. Although occasionally they do come out.

A prefilter will help immensely with sand, also lots of washing

 

[yhbae]

Yeah at this point, I am tempted to stay with two AC Mini filters on the 15g, and use some coarse sponge on the in take.

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

 

[reefplayground]

I have lots of experience using sponge filter with air stones so I am comfortable with those. They seem to work well from biological filtering perspective but oh boy, are they ugly to look at... :evil_lol: Hence I don't use them in show tanks. But I always use them in fry/raise tanks.

No,. the hydor koralia is not a sponge adaptable powerhead.

It's a magnetically clamping power head, No sponge involved, simply for high water volume movement w/o the hi-pressure aspect of your standard powerhead.