"Ionizer" wrote in message
...
"Rocco Moretti" wrote in message
...
You don't say what filter you have, but I have an Aquaclear filter
with a conical dip tube intake with rather wide intake slots. To keep
large chunks & snails out, I've cut a hole in a small Aquaclear sponge
filter and put it over the intake tube. This keeps live things from
being sucked into the tube. (Previously the filter was sucking snails
out of their shells, but now my shrimp can land and take off from the
sponge with no problems.)

I've got the same Aquaclear filter setup here also. I'd begun
speculating about how I could modify a little piece of one of my wife's
nylons in order to prevent this from happening again, but your approach
is much better- thanks.

This little cat is now against the glass on his side at the bottom.
He's almost certainly not going to make it, but I'm not going to
intervene *again.* I'll make sure this never happens again, though.

Regards,
Ian.



I use a sponge pre filter called the filter max III that can be bought for
around $10.00 each and I use one wherever any fry would otherwise be sucked
in (or small fish for that matter), the kit comes with various adapters to
allow connection to most if not all filters/powerheads. I did need to cut
the tip of my aquaclear off (I use one aquaclear for my hospital tank) on
it's intake tube because of the tip having those small holes in the group
shape of a tapering cone in order to get a good sponge prefilter connection
(I used a fiberglass cutting disc with my dremel clone) and I have had
perfect results so far and I as said previously have used the sponge
prefilters with other filters without issues. The only thing I have
experienced negatively with sponge prefilters is that they need to soak in
10 parts water 1 part bleach overnight once a year to get rid of the fish
slime "glue" effect which is explained a tid bit in the online manual for
the vortex xl filter online (do a search for "diatom filter" and make your
selection). I've only needed to do this once so far and it was recent, the
sponge material doesn't stay fluffy like when it's new and restricts flow
significantly until you use the water/bleach cleaning method. Good luck and
later!