Filter is sucking up substrate!

[NinaS]

I have a very light, porous substrate and I only set up my tank yesterday, so naturally a lot of the substrate is still floating at the top. The problem is, when I turn the filter on loads of the substrate is sucked into the filter, and I'm afraid it might block it. So I haven't been running the filter and I know this can stunt the cycling process especially as I have introduced bacteria from an established tank. Any advice on what to do? I have many plants in my tank.

[Spiritwind]

Use a prefilter on the intake?

[zico_aqua]

put a sponge on the intake of the filter pores. Won't suck anything in

[NinaS]

It appears as though my filter is too strong, it's stirring up the substrate quite a bit. There's no way of turning it down, how can I reduce the flow? Or will I need to buy a new filter? My tank is 60l and the filter is the powerbio 700. It came with the tank.

[zico_aqua]

one thing you can do is..stuff it with media. but I do not know how the make of the filter is so would suggest someone with experience with the same should look into this.

[hedge_fund]

http://www.amazon.com/Pre-Filter-Spo...-filter+sponge

[Diana]

Cut the intake tube shorter so it is farther away from the substrate.

[FlyingSheep]

Originally Posted by NinaS

It appears as though my filter is too strong, it's stirring up the substrate quite a bit. There's no way of turning it down, how can I reduce the flow? Or will I need to buy a new filter? My tank is 60l and the filter is the powerbio 700. It came with the tank.

What you can do, is like others say, put a sponge filter on the intake to prevent the substrate. I have one with my shrimp tank, and they love the silly thing. They dine off of it more than they do to my moss.

As for the flow, I have a 10 gallon tank with just enough gravel (I'm serious, JUST enough) to cover the bottom so that I don't see glass. It's not for planting or anything, I just don't want to see the bottom. Plus I read that shrimp won't be stressed with dark substrate.

Anyway, my filter will push a giant glass hole in my tank, so what I did was take a cheap plastic plant and stuck it right under the flow. It dispersed the water so that it doesn't even touch the gravel. If that doesn't work, you can actually take excess sponge filter and try and fit it into the flow of the filter. I've tried doing that as an alternative to the plastic plant (I believe all plastic plants are the devil and shouldn't be named), and it worked. Somewhat, it's just not the prettiest thing in the world to see a giant sponge hanging out of a filter. Be sure not to stop up the flow to where it just barrels through though, you need to leave gaps of water. But for my filter, it worked somewhat.

[fusiongt]

Easy solution, new substrate.

[R.sok]

Filter sponge on the inlet. I use it on my eclipse tank. you can either go buy a pre filter sponge, but I just ended up taking apart a sponge filter & jamming it into the intake. also when you install the sponge you don't want to puch it all the way into the tube, just 1/4 or halfway is fine

[NinaS]

I got a new filter, it was just to strong and ended up breaking anyway. I have the arcadia arc 60l. I ended up getting the fluval U2, heard it was a great little filter. The thing is, it's so quite and gentle I'm not sure if it's running properly... but my tank looks great.