Filter Fiasco

I should probably include a fish update.

Things aren't going as smoothly as I would have liked.  I originally planned for the 20g upstairs to host the freshwater fish in the house.  I was mostly planning on Emerald Catfish (we have 4) with something else in there with a little more pizazz.  I put in a sand substrate as that is absolutely ideal for catfish and, as predicted, they freaking love it.

The downstairs fish tank would be brackish and would home the sailfin molly and more of his kind, as well as a few bumblebee gobies.  They also have sand.

SIX filters later...

The sand is killing the HOB filters I put upstairs and filters are too damn expensive to be gone through like this. I had invested in a canister filter for the bigger tank downstairs but I have yet, after two canisters, to get it to work.  It is infuriating!

So I have decided, once I can finally get the canister to work downstairs, to move the catfish and all the sand to the downstairs, now freshwater, tank.  The upstairs tank will be brackish with a few mollies and a rock substrate.  Hopefully the canister will work better with the sand and the rock upstairs will finally make the HOBs happier.  Of course this means more time and money to accomplish, which just gets me angrier, but hopefully better results are on the horizon.

I just need to get that damn canister working...