Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone! Haven't checked in in a long time... after years of running edible fish in a bare-bottom 300-gallon, I'm going to build a display tank! in a 75-gallon tank I'm going to drill for a SLO. The fish I'm looking at (dojo loach, goldfish, pleco et. al.) are healthier with a sand substrate.

Is a sand substrate possible with an SLO? Obviously it'll need to stop a bit shy of the ground, but thoughts?

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Hi BenBrewcat,

The purpose of a SLO is to keep the debris out of the tank by sucking it up with the water from the bottom. If the bottom of the tank has sand deliberately then I cannot see a SLO working.

You may need to run that like an aquarium and vacuum the sand.

If you put a step or riser along the bottom edge, maybe plastic, where the SLO sits, then the sand could fill the lower area up to the edge of the riser; maybe a row of pebbles along the edge? That might work.

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Your other option would be to use a gravel substrate with the gravel bigger than the holes in the SLO.

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