New Fluval View+Fish Sucked Into The Intake=Sad 10 Year Old

[foamer01]

Hi,
Newbie here. Just trying to get started on the right foot. Got the tank cyclying properly. Introduced fish. It seems the fish are swimming against a pretty good current all the time. My un-experienced mind says more water movement all the better. We had one last night get sucked against the intake (was able to swim away) at the bottom where the fluval view's intake is. Tonight another fish got sucked against and couldn't release and expired. How much is to much movement? Do fish need rest from the current? I notice in salt tanks they have what looks like a fan creating more movement........ours is not salt. Anything we can do to prevent more fatalities? Can you put anything in front of the intake or will I risk burning out the pump? Help!! My 10 year old is sad with his new tank.
Thanks for reading

 

[Munroco]

Cover the intake with some gauze or something similar?

 

[Alasse]

Put a coarse sponge over the intake

 

[LyraGuppi]

1+ to the sponge and gauze.


What type of fish are they? Some can't stand heavy water movement.

 

[foamer01]

1+ to the sponge and gauze.


What type of fish are they? Some can't stand heavy water movement.

Thanks for the quick response. We have two glowlight tetra's and two fancy guppies. Please bear with my ignorance. When you use gauze is there something special or just bandaid gauze for wounds? And sponge the same thing just get some sponge at the auto repair and cut it into strips or do they make something special for the intended use? Thanks for your help!

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

I believe fluval has special sponge you can use and I wouldnt use gauze, but I dont know a lot about it You could get an aquarium sponge off of amazon and cut it to size, then make a hole in the middle so it fits snugly over the intake

 

[fluttermoth]

Is this a very new tank, OP?
 
It is actually very, very unusual for healthy fish to get sucked into a normal fish tank filter. It's more likely that the fish are already sick or dying, and the filter is just doing its job.
 
How long has the tank been running, and how long have you had fish in there? Have you had the water tested or done a water change?

 

[foamer01]

Is this a very new tank, OP?
 
new tank
 
It is actually very, very unusual for healthy fish to get sucked into a normal fish tank filter. It's more likely that the fish are already sick or dying, and the filter is just doing its job.
 
The fish in question appeared to be very healthy and vibrant, the current in this particular tank seem's quite strong. Reading a few reviews on AMAZON and the fast current seems to be talked about. The inlet runs across the whole bottom of the tank. Maybe the shape of the tank encourages the swift action....
 
How long has the tank been running, and how long have you had fish in there? Have you had the water tested or done a water change?
 
3 weeks, cycled before introducing fish, tested regular before putting in fish.

 

[AquariumGuides]

What is the size of your tank and how fast is the water moving (in gallons per hour). If you have more than 10x turnover, that may be part of the problem.
 
 
On top of that, I would say you have several options. Regular band-aid gauze does work quite nicely normally, however, to be on the safe side you can easily cut a little sponge out and put it over the intake. The only thing you need to be careful of is that the sponge can clog up so you'll need to rinse it regularly.
 
On top of that, I would recommend (depending on how populated your tank is) adding some live plants with some driftwood so that your fish can have somewhere to hide from the current and somewhere to feel comfortable plus live plants & driftwood will add to the overall tank health.

 

[eduller]

I had this tank with a male betta, and I put a Fluval sponge behind the filter intake grate, and he never had trouble being sucked against it. That way it did its job and I didn't have an ugly great chunk of sponge hanging out in the middle of my tank. Just cut it to fit and slip it up in there.

 

[Munroco]

The gauze I was thinking of was something like a piece of womens stockings.

 

[ShinySideUp]

Any LFS will sell coarse filter sponger in a variety of colours, including black, so it doesn't have to be obtrusive.
 
I might say though that if your flow is so great that fish get sucked against the outlet then something is a bit awry. Either your flow is way too great or the outlet basket is too small and so concentrates the suction. See if you can buy or make a larger outlet basket so the flow is spread out somewhat.
 
As has already been pointed out, some fish are not strong swimmers and don't do well in high flow.

 

[b3cca]

I'm with Flutter on this. Sounds like your tank is not cycled or somehow has crashed which is causing the problem.
In those small nano type tanks conditions can go from perfect to fatal fairly quickly.
If you have no test kit then I would certainly be doing a partial water change just in case
 
They may look vibrant and healthy even when they are really ill and suffering, this is a defense mechanism as they know predators look for weakness so it can be impossible to tell just by looking at them sometimes

 

[NickAu]

A few questions from another novice.
 
Wouldn't it be counterproductive to have filter going full speed? Wouldn't it be better if the water moved slowly over the media giving the bacteria in the media a chance to do its work?
I have a Biopro Aquarium External Canister 800L/ per hour and a 15 gallon tank, and I set my pump to 60 L/ per hour, My Betta can sit next to the filter intake pipe without any effort on his behalf. The current is go gentle it don't affect his tail fin at all.
 
How I tested and set up the flow rate.
 
I used a 1litre bottle and filled it using the out hose on my filter, time how long it takes to fill the bottle, In my case it took 59 seconds times that by 60 and there's your rate.
 
There should be a way to slow the flow down on the unit.

 

[ShinySideUp]

A few questions from another novice.
 
Wouldn't it be counterproductive to have filter going full speed? Wouldn't it be better if the water moved slowly over the media giving the bacteria in the media a chance to do its work?
I have a Biopro Aquarium External Canister 800L/ per hour and a 15 gallon tank, and I set my pump to 60 L/ per hour, My Betta can sit next to the filter intake pipe without any effort on his behalf. The current is go gentle it don't affect his tail fin at all.
 
How I tested and set up the flow rate.
 
I used a 1litre bottle and filled it using the out hose on my filter, time how long it takes to fill the bottle, In my case it took 59 seconds times that by 60 and there's your rate.
 
There should be a way to slow the flow down on the unit.

 
Good question.
 
Filter at full speed: I tend to look at filtration as the necessity to turn over the water in the aquarium a certain number of times per hour which results in a nominal figure depending on the size of the tank. Various sources will tell you figures of anything from twice ann hour to over twenty times an hour but the important thing is that the fiilter can do it's job and so it is 'normal' for a figure of ten times per hour to be typical and I tend to stick to that. Now some of my fish like a high flow rate and some hardly any at all so I use the filter to change the water at my desired rate and additional pumps to increase the flow in certain parts of the tank, this keeps my cory's happy as they have slow-moving water at the bottom right of the tank and my Clown Loaches happy as there is fast-moving water at the middle-to-bottom left of the tank. The filter provides a constant speed of water flow outside the pump-affected area by the use of two inlet feeds at different angles.
 
I don't like to restrict the flow of pump as I don't think it can do it any good so I change flowrate by adding inlet feeders or with the addition of spraybars or some such device -- waterflow is the same but the speed of the water at any given point is not as high.