I have a waterfall in my tank and have had issues with it on and off. Now I cannot get the pump to stop clogging. Every little thing seems to block it up. Any tips?

I originally had it in a waterfall dish, then I put it directly in my drainage layer. That was blocking up too much so I put it in a different waterfall and it worked well for about 3 weeks. I cleaned it out really well but the tiniest bit of anything will block it back up, and gray tree frogs can get quite messy! Am I going to have to ditch this idea? It would suck considering they love it so much.