Sanded in Tank vs. Filters

[MainelyFish]

So I recently switch from a rock bottom to a sand and I love the way it looks and how the fish interact with it... However I had a conversation with a LFS owner the other day and he said that sand it bad and he would never do sand because it will kill your filters...

He said even if your filters are not to the bottom the fish will throw the dirt up into the water and it will get sucked up by your filter and ruin your filter... He was very adiment on this point and it seems like a valid point...

Just wanted to get your take on this subject and how accurate it is and if any of you have had this happen?

[graceful.04]

I don't have sand in any of my tanks, but the only two negative things I've ever heard about it are the gas pockets that can easily be removed by moving the sand around every once and a while and that it's hard to clean. Never have I heard anything about sand being particularly bad for filters, but I'm no expert...

[BV77]

Depends on the size of the grains of sand.

[weedkiller]

it clogs filters if it isn't rinsed properly otherwise it should be fine, to clean just run your fingers through it and get the crap to the surface, let settle for 30 mins and vac the crap out

[Superfly724]

I've used silica sand for over a year now with no problems. Unless you're pouring the sand into your filter intake, it shouldn't be an issue. If you have really fine sand that will cloud when sifted then you may have issues, but most sugar sized grain is heavy enough that it shouldn't ever really come in contact with your filter. Saying to NEVER use sand is a little much. I just personally like sand way more than gravel in my tanks.

[TheOldSalt]

I don't think a fish can flick up enough sand to get sand sucked into your filter.

[Maine_Fish]

I've been using pool filter sand in my tanks for quite some time now, and everything seems fine. In a couple cases where I was concerned about fish kicking up the sand, I just put a prefilter sponge on the filter's intake.

[MainelyFish]

I am using the Pool Filer sand as well and that was my take so far I haven't seen them kick up any sand at all but my wife was there when the guy was saying all this so she is paranoid that we are going to ruin our filters and have to my new ones... I love sand so much more then rocks....