Safe or not?

[dreaminmel]

So I've about had it with things committing suicide in my powerheads and need a solution. I've had a clownfish, a sixline and two days ago a sand cucumber take a look into the awful vacuum of death.

After a 30 gallon water change all is well in my tank after the cuke's death. (Thanks Brian) FYI, not a fun task to remove a cucumber from powerhead parts. And I thought acros stunk...
:eek1:

So, question is this... can I cut a circle of pantyhose and rubber band the circle to my powerhead as a safetey net? I have the ZooMed Powersweep powerheads and refuse to give them up as they've worked excellent for me for 3 years now at making waves and mixing up the tank flow all over the place. A quick disassemble and cleaning a few times a year and they're good as new.

If the pantyhose thing won't work does anyone have any other suggestions or ideas?

thanks in advance...

Melanie

Link to powerheads: Powersweep

The suction part these powerheads rest on has a wide open hole underneath for the water to come up through (also for attaching to UG filters). The powerhead itself has a protective grid at the bottom but by the time something gets stuck in the hole of the suction part, there's no escape from the water flow.

 

[gary greguire]

CD-21303 Pre-filter Sponge - 6 pk $19.99

I would suggest trying these first.

 

[Stephany]

http://www.karensroseanemones.com/coverpowerheads.htm

I think it's the cross-stitching plastic... or something?
These are cheap, and can be gotten at your local arts and crap store.

 

[gary greguire]

or maybe just use the case from these without the filter.

 

[gary greguire]

great link Stephany!!!

 

[dalbrecht]

The stuff is called plastic canvas and it's found in the embroidery supplies. There's usually a plastic lace sold near it that can be VERY useful in aquarium applications.

 

[dreaminmel]

Sweet suggestions!

So I went to WalMart and bought some circles of somewhat flexible plastic grid for like $.99 and aquarium sealant for $4 and rigged up a protective grid. As the pics show I cut the appropriate size circle, placed it on the "hole of death" of the part the powerhead rests on and siliconed it in place. For now my powerheads are somewhat stationary in my tank and these holders will go back in after 48 hours.

Thanks again!!

 

[Stephany]

I hope that works, I would think you would want a larger area of "suckage", so that if something does crawl near it, it can pull itself off.

But that's me thinking hypothetically... as I have no experience with anemones yet.

 

[Guy]

I use Tronic Heater Guards. They are cheap, small, black and quickly become coralline encrusted.

 

[dalbrecht]

I agree with stephany. They've banned drains like that on spas for a reason, without some up and down space it can easilly get blocked by any large flat object ( side of a fish, underside of a large snail etc.

 

[dreaminmel]

Yeah I'm really not concerned about that. My turbo snails made it across that opening w/out the screen. The screen is simply to keep things from getting into the tube as once they're in they can't get back out.

Stephany, I have no experience w/ anemones either and they're not planned for my tank at all in the future.

 

[Stephany]

I have an overflow consisting of one 3/4" pipe that goes down to my sump. I have a bioball sitting just inside of it, which slows it down a little bit. In attempt to defeat that, I took nylon netting, and put it over my overflow, rubberbanding it around the pipe.

One random stray runaway bastard of a mushroom clogged it, and almost overflowed my main tank. :rolleye:

So I'm sticking with "round" things, or things that aren't flush with the intake on anything. Powerheads, Overflows... that way there's more surface area of suction, & harder for something to cover the opening completely.
I would say a cucumber may run a similar risk to an anemone getting stuck there.
Btw, great diy pictures, you should do some more stuff... and take pictures of it. lol So we can do it too. :rollface:

 

[spoon25]

i use bio balls......just let the bio ball suck fast to the powerhead, they work great....cheap & quick easy to clean and they dont take lots of space

 

[dreaminmel]

Thanks Stephany Except maybe next time I won't take the pictures over my butt ugly orange 70's kitchen counter... god I can't wait to move.

 

[dalbrecht]

Spoon. Playing devils advocate: what happens when you loose power?

 

[Chrsnwk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7096512#post7096512 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gary greguire
or maybe just use the case from these without the filter.

I've used this approach with the foam removed in the past and it worked quite well. The major downside is that's it rather big and unsightly.