public aquariums and sand filters

[greenmachine]

I have bee to two big public aquariums this year and noticed that both use sand filters on all the large displays and skimmers on anything under 100 gallons. WHY? I spoke with some staff members at one and they said that the sand filters worked well because they could just "back flush" them at nighttime. From what I have seen in my personal reef tank I would think that the public aquariums would use something other than a sand filter?? What do they know that we dont?

[SantaMonica]

They don't want particles in the water.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Yeah that's just a standard pool sand filter and I would bet that they don't have much in the way of actual live coral in those large displays.

[Rumpy Pumpy]

Yeah that's just a standard pool sand filter and I would bet that they don't have much in the way of actual live coral in those large displays.

There's a big one in central London, & during a visit I noticed that they have plastic corals in their big tanks.


I guess though that aside from the filtration issues it must be very difficult to get adequate light to those depths.

[kerry]

I have used a sand pool filter on my FW 150G years ago and had good luck with it. It was great when I had it full of 10 Oscars. It was a small one, only held 100 pounds sand. The tank had no substrate, just stirred it up once a week then back flushed and re-filled with treated FW. Easiest large cichlid tank I ever had. Thats when I had a basement with a sump pump in the concrete floor. I used the spa/pool pump it came with for about 3 years before I moved.