Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

I'm so frustrated.
Yesterday I noticed the flow on my cherry tank had slowed down again! Last time this happened I lost 2 cherry adults but managed to save one.

I use a fluval 2 pull on sponge sleeve to cover the intake and use a piece of sponge to block off the bottom. Obviously the suicidal shrimp like busting through the blocked off part and being sucked in and jammed by the impellor.

I took it all apart again and found a cherry shrimp and tiger shrimplet by the impellor....the shrimplet was fine but the cherry was twitching. I put the cherry back into the tank and my berried tiger swooped on her, carrying her away so I seperated the weak cherry from everyone but I think she's a goner.

I threw away the stupid sponges, nicked a pair of my daughter's nylons, cut a piece off and shoved it on the intake instead.

I'd like to see them break through a pair of 20 deniers.

I use HOB type filters and have found a sponge that fits on most any small filter intake and has only one hole. It is the replacement sponge for a Tetra Billi and costs about $3.

Looks like this:



I only have to rinse it every month or so if the flow rate slows down due to the sponge clogging.

Sorry about your frustration. . .

Thanks YuccaPatrol,

I'll have to get me a couple of those because using nylons in my other shrimp tanks isn't an option because I have bn plecs in there. My otto got his barbs caught in some nylons I was using to protect the filter and he died. I couldn't bear to lose my bn males like that.

And I forgot to mention that there is also another tetra sponge for a Tetra Brilli that looks like it might be a little larger and has a ridged exterior to increase surface area. I'm going to buy one of those next.

Thanks.

I just checked on the shrimp and she is dead. Poor little thing.

If you want to use a powered filter that won't clog & won't suck shrimp use an under gravel filter and put the suction of the HOB or power head in the up-tube of the undergavel filter. The flow is too slow to suck anyone in and the gravel is too tight to let them through. I use fine concrete gravel which is mostly quartz and granite about 3/4" deep.

This turns the entire bottom of the aquarium into a bios-filter. The only down-side is if you get a planaria infestation it is hard to get at them.

I'm not a big fan of UGFs. I had one in my first tank and found it a pain compared to spray bar filters and internals. I know people use them with great success but I also don't fancy pulling out my substrate to set it up too.

The nylons seem to be doing the trick for now and i'll look into connecting a sponge filter to the intake.

Cheers for the suggestion though.

Due to some requests, I searched for an online source for the Tetra Billi and Brilli replacement sponges and could not find them. The packages I buy at my local store do look old and this may be discontinued.

However, I do think that the sponge prefilter for a Penguin powerhead would be a perfect fit also and I know those are readily available. I'll try one when I see it next, but someone else may want to make the $3 gamble to see if it is a good fit for small HOB's. ..

I use the Maxijet prefilter sponges, they work pretty well. They have a slightly more open pore than some other sponges, but the pores are small enough not to let baby shrimp through.

I have been using Hagen Elite replacement sponges for its sponge filters. It looks like the Tetra Billi posted above but it has the ridged exterior that Yucca Patrol mentioned.

I'm still having problems.

On Monday the filter slowed down again so I checked for blockages and found another 2 dead adult cherry shrimp in the impellor section of the filter. I checked the nylons were tied super tight (which they were), cleaned it out again and put it back together.
This morning there was zero flow......I took it apart again and found my only adult tiger shrimp male dead with a live adult cherry shrimp in the impellor section again. There was also a dead youngster tiger shrimp on the floss that the spray bar flows onto.

I haven't got a clue how they are getting into the filter.....the only way I can think of is through the bit that pushes the water out, and they are climbing in it somehow.

I want to buy a sponge filter but is there anyway to connect it to a powerhead? Are all sponge filters powered by air pumps?

I've got some major googling ahead.

Check for "reverse flow adapter". peguin makes a setup that fit all thir power heads that suck on the foam filter. I used this for quite some time before I went to my undergravel system. I never lost a shrimp with it as far as I can tell. I used a 550 in a 10 gallon tank.

Thanks badflash i'll look out for that.