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Well as the temps drop lower and lower, It's about time to bring my 7" Belize Slider back into her 55G tank. Right now, the tank has no decorations besides one piece of Driftwood used for basking, but I think it's too small now(just like the tank .)

Anyway, I have a Fluval 404 running which is quite powerful and I'm wondering about Substrate. I used to have River Rocks-Ugh what a pain!

I really want to put sand in there, but I've heard horror stories about sand killing filters.

Any advice. I mean I know you need to wash the sand and stuff, but there's always the chance of the sand getting kicked up right?

Thanks!

Sand could get kicked up... I think people raise the height of the intake level if it happens a lot.

I just put sand in my 20 gallon tank, what i did, is i guestimated how much sand to use and poured that much in a 5 gallon bucket. i then filled the bucket with water and agitated an mixed the sand up with my hands. and then i dumped out the water. i did that 4 or 5 times. then i used a scoop to dump all the sand into the tank. the water was still cloudy even though i washed the sand. but i turned on my filter. i have the tetra decorative repto filter. and by mornng the water was clear. when the turtles dig it doesnd really kick up anything because the filters removed all of the floating bits. thats what worked for me.


you could always use one of those pre filters that fit on the intake tube...

I've got sand and haven't had any problems so far. My intake is about 2" from the substrate, but my turtle also doesn't seem to kick up much sand/dig around. I've also got it near some plants and other things, so he's less likely to swim around there because there's no room for him. You could always put some rocks and stuff around the intake, so that he can't kick up sand anywhere near it.