Fluval Aqua Clear Murdered my two Peppered Corydoras within 24 hours!

[Ken Sauer]

Well my fluval roma came with a U4 and i stripped out the filtration it came with and added my own they're great systems and really quiet, i added a fine carbon sponge at the bottom with 10 18mm bio balls, then netted to bags of carbon and zeolite and slotted the down the sides and then another fine layer of carbon sponge with netted bio rings on top and i have 12 cories and suffer no trouble.
Sometimes you buy stuff and still have to get extras and like you say for the price of some things, these odd things that are needed should come with them.

Yep. Good work! ( :

 

[Vivo]

I’m so sorry about your fish. I cannot visualize what happened. If you have the strainer on the end of the intake tube, it should be impossible to suck any fish and especially a hard shell snail up. Even harder still to imagine it spitting it back out with all the filter media in the way. Did you have the strainer at the end? The slits are only a centimeter if even that why a half a centimeter. If you have an intake sponge it should be physically impossible for anything to be sucked up.

 

[signrik]

What is up with the Fluval Aquaclear 110 power filter. I have two of them in a 125 gallon tank. Within 24 hours 2 perfectly healthy peppered corydoras (which we had grown very close to) were sucked up into the filter and brutally killed. There is no warning, that I can find, in any of the packaging nor instructions about the possibility of this filter sucking up and killing fish. I even had the setting on low. and after the first murder, I stuffed the suction with sponge. It still sucked up, overnight, the other cory killing him!!! I am so angry I can hardly stand it. Any suggestions?

 

[signrik]

Folk are being polite to you
But iv afraid you are wrong and are talking twaddle you are making crazy threats when in the real world the chances are you have murdered (to use your over the top words) then they were sucked into the filters
There is no way that healthy Cory's would have allowed themselves to bd sucked in
Of course even though everyone is telling you things you don't want to hear
I would not be so harsh but your words are so much more over the top than mine

 

[jfcp]

I'm sorry about your fish.
I have never heard of this happening. I have an aquaclear myself, and I haven't had an issue.
Did you actually see them getting stuck, or did you just find the bodies? Is it possible they died and the filter just sucked up their bodies?

Here is what happened. I went to the local mom and pop fish store for expert advice. He said it happens all the time. Therefore, you have to purchase outside sponges that go over the intakes. I asked him why Fluval doesn't put them in the box or suggest buying them. His answer, 'Because they want to make more money. They don't care." He suggested I sue them or at least call the following number and demand they put this warning on the box/in the instructions. So, my fellow fish lovers, I will be calling their phone number tomorrow and demand they do this. Please join me. Maybe we can save some perfectly healthy and innocent fish, along with children and family members who mourn their violent passing (not to mention hold a company accountable that charges us a fortune for its products). Thanks and God Bless, Ken Sauer Toll Free Number, ask for Customer Service (they aren't open until Monday: 1-800-724-2436 between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. EST

You have a point re mfg warnings & advice, but sorry to have to say, you really do have to be your own expert to the maximum extent possible. If you had a properly fitting sponge over the intake, hard to see how any fish got sucked in. My guess is the sponge wasn't long enough so that prying animals - like cory's or snails could still get in between the inside of the sponge and the outside of the inlet tube. But Aqua Clear seems to be the biggest bang for the buck in HOB filters, so I'd make it work, if it were me.

I have an Aqua Clear 20-50 gallon HOB on my 20g long, and I put a sponge over the intake. I used the following mod as a safeguard against the very issue you had (since I was uneasy about the fit of the sponge):

I'm assuming you used a sponge that is a hollow cylinder with a bottom.

1.) Make sure the sponge is long enough to go well up the side of the inlet tube - the upper rim of the sponge is WELL above the inlet ports.

2.) Make a SMALL hole in the bottom-center of the sponge, slide the sponge over the inlet tube until the just the very tip of the tube is poking through the bottom of the sponge.

3.) Get two of those plastic-coated wire twisty-tie things, like comes on a loaf of bread.

4.) Run one of the ties right through the sponge and inlet tube ports, left to right. PICK YOUR ENTRY POINT SO THE TIE INTERFERES WITH ANY SLIDING OF THE SPONGE UP OR DOWN ALONG THE TUBE, SO THAT THE SPONGE CANNOT POSSIBLY MOVE .

5.) Loop the second wire-tie around the top of the sponge, twist it tight, so that it compresses the rim of the sponge tightly against the outside of the inlet tube, but above the inlet ports.

You could also use a sheet of sponge and more wire-ties; A couple around it to form a cylinder, at least one through it, one at the upper rim, and one at the bottom, to close that off.

 

[Commodore 64]

Every year, there's a story about a person getting into deep trouble in a swimming pool, with the water intake. There's even stories of people getting their entrails sucked out of their rectum by them. Suction is some crazy stuff, hydrostatic pressure is some crazy stuff. Ask anyone who works on dam inspections. It's entirely possible that perfectly healthy fish could get stuck on any filter intake.

I've known this since I was a kid 25 years ago with my first fish tank, because I learned the same way you did. It sucks. This was a lesson learned for you.

There were always a few cherry shrimp living happily in the canister of my Fluval 206. Even with a sponge on the intake.

There's an early post, suggesting cutting an x into a filter pad. I did exactly that, once I realized what was going on until I was able to source a proper fitting one.

 

[Ken Sauer]

Folk are being polite to you
But iv afraid you are wrong and are talking twaddle you are making crazy threats when in the real world the chances are you have murdered (to use your over the top words) then they were sucked into the filters
There is no way that healthy Cory's would have allowed themselves to bd sucked in
Of course even though everyone is telling you things you don't want to hear
I would not be so harsh but your words are so much more over the top than mine

I agree with you on my harsh words. I apologize. This was right when it happened, my children were in hysterics, I was in shock. They were sucked in, but I don't have anything else to add. God Bless you and keep you

 

[Fishmanic]

So maybe this would be a good
place to end this overly long thread instead of churning and rechurning opinions.

 

[Ken Sauer]

So maybe this would be a good
place to end this overly long thread instead of churning and rechurning opinions.

I agree