I am thinking about getting an oscar to put in a 75 gal. I would like to have a sand bottom as all my other tanks have a sand bottom but am worried that the oscar might kick the sand up to much and destroy my filters. Is a sand bottom possible with oscars and if so how can I keep it from getting into my filters (outside of putting something over my intakes).

when using sand try to keep the intake at least 3 inches above the substrate at least until the finer silt has been vacummed from the tank(this took me about 2 month vaccuming twice a week). afterwards you can lower the intake to about 2 inches from the bottom.

also try to place your intake tube in an area that the oscars dont dig in. this will prolonge the life of your impellor.

i am using power head pump sitting on the substrates
of gravel and sand. the screen of the pump is the clearance
and protection that not to much sand will be sucked during
oscar bulldozing the substrate. because i am using an open
box overhead filtering system, i just remove and replace the
top layer of my media whenever it is already clogged with dirt
and sands.