Filter Flow Troubles

[CezzaXV]

Hey everyone!

On Thursday I woke up to find my tank full of baby apple snails. Hurrah! I immediately put some tights over the filter intake to prevent them from getting sucked up. However, it appears to have had a bad effect on my filter flow and it dropped significantly. I came home tonight to find almost no flow, my guppies and cories struggling to breathe and 0.25ppm of ammonia. I've done a large water change and moved the tights so they're covering only the tube rather than the strainer (if that makes sense) but is there anything else I can do to help the situation?

 

[mattlee]

why noy put the snails in a breeder trap for now?

covering the intake will decrease the flow as you have discovered. the ammonia spike is probably due to the filter not being able to cope due to the poor flow through it.

 

[Gilli]

Keep doing daily water changes and cut right back on feeding until your ammonia reading is back to 0.

 

[OldMan47]

I bet the tights were severely restricting filter flows. That is why I use a sponge filter to cover a filter inlet rather than a simple cover like tights. The sponge I use on an inlet looks like this before being placed into use. I simply place a slit in it and slip it over the inlet of my filter inlet.

After a month or more in service it tends to look more like this.

 

[CezzaXV]

OldMan, do you find yor method restricts the flow at all? I was wondering about using a sponge but didn't have any to hand.

I ended up removing the tights because when I woke up this morning the flow was practically non-existent. I guess I'll just check inside the filter every now and then for any babies that have been sucked up.

I would like to find a solution though, as I hope to add shrimp to this tank so babies getting sucked up is going to be a constant problem.

 

[OldMan47]

I am not using an ordinary sponge, I use one made to be used in a filter so it has an open celled design. In my case mine was made to be used in an AC 70 filter.