AquaClean intake pre-filter?

I was cleaning my AC 70 today and discovered a small shrimp population thriving in there.  Curious what others do to help avoid this.  For now I've removed the extension tube so that the intake is more shallow.

Sounds like some people use these, any thoughts?

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Anything wrong with having a extra clean up crew in your filter? I'm sure they like being in the filter more than the tank.

I am going to take this as a salt tank. not something I am familiar with, might try oscarfish.com or MFK for a faster answer. have a few on oscarfish.com that do salt water.

Shrimp filter screen.

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I've seen those stainless mesh guards before also, wasn't sure if they made them big enough for the AC intake?

anderson_p_r wrote:I've seen those stainless mesh guards before also, wasn't sure if they made them big enough for the AC intake?

Dunno. Just thought they where coOl looking.

I've used the pre-filter for aquaclears I like em. I actually have them coming into the shop in the next week or two.

Sponge pre-filters are a plus in so many ways! Pre-filter, rinse with every water change and lessen the need for cleaning the whole filter. Feeding station, catches uneaten food and allows fish time to find and eat it before it gets sucked into the filter. Added bio-filter. Prevents small fish and shrimp from being sucked into the filter,though as Nick_87 pointed out that's not all bad. I use them on most of my AC HOBs.

 - Are you saying there is people out there that don't use a pre-filter sponge on their HOB? I was checking out a glass lily setup. It look so coOl but thought it looked really odd without a sponge on the end of the pickup.

I use tulle (netting) wrapped around the intake of one of my canisters and secured by a ziptie, and a hunk of AC30 filter sponge with a hole cut down the middle stuck on my other canister intake (which is the intake of a sponge filter that happened to fit in the end of the canister intake). Both clog up in about the same time frame, but they both prevent all shrimp ingestion. Tulle holds up pretty well under water, interestingly enough.

if you get some of the random sized ones online (or from the coop). i just then would take a knife (prefer a filet knife) and make the opening within the sponge a bit wider. seemed to do the trick for my filters and they fit snug as a bug. hopefully i can find them around here somewhere so i can take a pic.

This what I use as pre-filter inspired by pat aka anderson_p_r

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I also use a chunk of sponge that I just cut and then kinda dig a hole in so that it fits on the intake in all my tanks that have babies. Works like a charm.

SiRWesDragon wrote:This what I use as pre-filter inspired by pat aka anderson_p_r

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Why have 1 when you can have 2?! I like this. Where did you find the hardware to put this together?

fishNAbowl wrote: - Are you saying there is people out there that don't use a pre-filter sponge on their HOB?

I don't.   

Was it just me that found it to be such a mess?  Especially when you turn the power off to the hob?


I use a small piece of netting rubberbanded around the intake if I have small fry that could be sucked up.  It's easy to run the vacuum tubing over it during water changes to get the stuff off of it so nothing falls back into the tank when I power off the filter to clean it. But I remove it as soon as the fry are big enough not to be sucked in!  In the tank that I have shrimp, I use sponge filters.

fishNAbowl wrote:Why have 1 when you can have 2?! I like this. Where did you find the hardware to put this together?

I got the hardware from ebay. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I wanted something bigger to make sure I don't restrict flow too much. I'm going to try the pre-filter pictured and see how that works.

That's a bit pricey to me for just a pre-filter ($14 shipped), unless you're buying it elsewhere.

@Betty, I hear you! Yes, when I pull the prefilter off I get a bunch of stuff falling back into the water. We probably have 2 way different tanks. Mine are heavily planted. Without a big sponge on the inlet ill get alsorts of plant matter into the filter. I remember when I had a bare tank I didnt have a sponge in my feeder grow quarantine tanks.

@ Wes, thank you!!

When I run the prefilter sponges I use a brine shrimp net (a little larger one) to net around the sponge when I do my maintenance...it stops the junk from falling from the sponge and back into the tank. Helps alot.

Remove the sponge and give it a minute to suck up loose debris before unplugging the filter. I start my siphon first also and hold it near while removing the sponge.

anderson_p_r wrote:I was cleaning my AC 70 today and discovered a small shrimp population thriving in there.  Curious what others do to help avoid this.  For now I've removed the extension tube so that the intake is more shallow.

Sounds like some people use these, any thoughts?

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these pre filters work great on ACs. they will save your filter's life in a tank with a sand substrate. i prefer the one with the course sponge because it doesn't get clogged and restrict flow as easily.

cichlid-gal wrote:When I run the prefilter sponges I use a brine shrimp net (a little larger one) to net around the sponge when I do my maintenance...it stops the junk from falling from the sponge and back into the tank.  Helps alot.

Oh... Good idea! Got some fine netting laying around. Ill definaltey use it.

Prefilter installed, Easily attached, looks good. Should do the job.