Anemone Safe PowerHead?

[WDLV]

I am humored. Are you assuming that both of us are falsely reporting our experiences?

No but I wonder if there are circumstances that might have contributed to these things happening based on my own experiences. There are applications where things will/will not work. ie: what's true of my system should not automatically be assumed to be true of yours.

I release food in front of the power head's exhaust and in my systems, the fish and anemone consume all of the food before it gets the chance to make it back to the intake of the power head and decompose or slow flow rate.

When I had closed loops I used to put frozen food on the intakes in much the same way for it to come shooting out the nozzels. It didn't matter if food went through since it was a large pump. Anemones did go through these closed loops on more than one occasion.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I only have two fish per 45 gallon tank. They take time to consume all the food they can eat. In my larger community display this was not an issue... but then neither were sponge prefilters.

If this is a problem, like it is in your system, I would assume the unit you currently run would just collect this food on the actual intake and impeller of the power head? which would result in more servicing of your pump, as I stated previously.

That's not the case in my scenario. The pieces that are able to pass through are small enough to make it past the impellar without incident. I don't feed large chunks because I keep small fish (clowns.)

The solution to this problem would be simply unplugging these powerful pumps during feeding, once all excess food is consumed, replug! And yes, with a power head that has the same flow rate or stronger than a AquaClear 30, It is easy to beleive E. Quadricolor was drawn through a rigid plastic screen like the the AC prefilter.

I can see that an anemone could be drawn through the screen in certain circumstances but through the bottom with an unobstructed top shocks me. If it were covered in corraline or hair algae causing obstructed flow I would be less surprised.
Yes; unplugging would be one solution. Unfortunately I don't always have have time to wait for every piece of food to be eaten. To get back on topic, a sponge prefilter can damage an anemone too if it gets stuck to it all day or all night... or more notoriously while you're on vacation!

There are a number of different solutions that work to some degree. Unfortunately I haven't found one that was flawless yet.

I find it disrespectful you would say you do not believe someone simply reporting their experiences.

I can understand how you would feel that way. I'm sorry that it was not stated as intended.

What I do for my maxi-jet foam/sponge filters is set the powerhead lower in the tank and let the pods clean them. That's right, they will actually get inside the foam and eat the food and poop. You can watch them do this, it is amazing.

That's a creative solution! I have definately seen pods and bristleworms take advantage of sponge material as you are saying.

 

[celamb89]

Yeah I'd have to see it to believe it. I can see one maybe losing a few tentacles if it was really close to the intake or if it was a really large anemone and surrounded the whole prefilter but I'm shocked to hear it would enter through the bottom.

Wow! I didnt think that could happen either, I thought it was flawless, I was almost going to start the mod unitl I read this

This very prefilter pictured with foam insert is how I lost an RBTA. The powerhead was behind some rock and although I could see 1/2 way down the prefilter and didn't think it could possibly get in my rbta entered through the bottom of the prefilter all the way up into the powerhead. If it didn't happen to me I would have not believed it.

Im just going to use some foam for now, I plan on getting a tunze wavebox this summer so until then or until I figure something else out foam will be in my tank that thing where the pods clean the foam sounds pretty cool! haha Ill have to try it!
I had some other ideas but after hearing that a RBTA went through that prefilter they were all discarded :S

 

[cherubfish pair]

Do you have a link to the Aqueon powerhead?

 

[celamb89]

http://www.yousaytoo.com/new-aqueon-powerheads/207123

Here you go! They move a lot of water! I've used them for about 1 week now and no problems. They move a lot of water!

 

[kduen]

I have read on here many times that people have placed regular nylon pantyhose over their power heads to keep them out but i have no experience with doing this at all so...

 

[celamb89]

I have read on here many times that people have placed regular nylon pantyhose over their power heads to keep them out but i have no experience with doing this at all so...

I guess this could work! It should do the same work as a foam protector maybe not the same but it will protect the nem somehow. At least the PH wont be out in the open ready to slice some nems hehe