# Power Head just killed my Catfish :(



## roffels (Jul 27, 2010)

Hey there guys,

Well I have a 90 Gallon aquarium that has sand substrate on the bottom I have 2 power heads running on each side of the tank (no hoses reaching down to the bottom of the tank) just bare power heads to keep water movement at the top of the aquarium .... well I just walked in to my room to see that the catfish was stuck to the power head it was already to late the power head literally sucked his insides out  .... So I am asking for some help ... I want to keep the power heads running but is there anyway I can put something on the bottom of the power head to act as a guard to keep fish from getting sucked into it? maybe something like a sponge to create a sponge like filter and to reduce the sucking power? I dont know, help is needed!

Thanks for the help,

-Roffels


----------



## Kerricko (May 26, 2010)

You shouldn't have a problem turning your power head into a sponge filter. Unless the design is different than the one I have.


----------



## Kerricko (May 26, 2010)

Double post.... Silly explorer... :?


----------



## roffels (Jul 27, 2010)

hey thanks for the speedy reply .... my power head most simply put is a box with a funnel jet coming out the front of the box and one out the bottom of the box


----------



## soulpride (Aug 30, 2009)

get a sponge filter for the bottom if that the inlet. or cover the inlet up.


----------



## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Another question might be if in fact the powerhead sucked the catfish in to kill him or if he died and then was sucked in. Unless you have a really strong suction, there would be no way to get my catfish to goes where he did not want to go while alive.


----------



## roffels (Jul 27, 2010)

I am pretty sure that it sucked him up because he was alive and fine 20 minutes before I found him. Also yes it does have a pretty it has a strong suction because it blows pretty water out pretty hard .... i think i like the idea of throwing a sponge on there just so there is some more extra filtration on what its spitting out

thanks for the advise ... some more is always appreciated

-Roffels


----------



## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

IMHO, you are chasing a bogeyman worrying about the powerheads.

powerheads won't kill healthy fish. I've seen tiny one inch fry get sucked up against a powerhead that had a very high GPH rating (I think it was around 350GPH if I recall right) and the tiny fry can pull away. The only time I've ever had a healthy fish get stuck in a powerhead was when a pleco swam up a pipe head first and the suction kept him there. When I found it, the head was huge! Took hours for it to go back to normal and the catfish lived to spawn!


----------



## cgmark (Aug 18, 2010)

I lost a really pretty electric blue to a power head. I felt bad because I was sitting right next to the tank when it happened and didn't notice what was going on because I had headphones on. Later I went to feed them and I always count when I feed to make sure all are okay and couldn't find him till I looked up and he was stuck to the inside of the tube to the power head. The power head had one of those snap on screens to protect the fish but it apparently came undone. I was so mad I immediately took out the power head and tossed it in a bucket and there it sits a month later.

I replaced all the intakes on filters and power heads with a one piece design where the intake pipe and screen are one piece . I had to make some of them myself. I took 1/2" and 3/4" pvc pipe, put caps on one end and then about 1" from the bottom of the pipe drilled holes and cut slots to make a new intake. There is so much room for water intake now that its impossible for anything to get stuck to it . Much safer now and actually works and looks better than the ones that came with the stuff.

Sort of related , a local public pool had to spend $22K to replace the floor drain on the filter intake because swimming pools have new laws in the USA making it illegal to have certain kinds of drains. Some drains and pump combination made it possible for people to drown due to the suction holding them at the bottom.
http://www.poolsafety.gov/vgb.html


----------



## Icey101 (Nov 5, 2007)

About a month ago I was cleaning the sponge filters I have on my power heads and left them running. I came back a minute or two later to have one of my cichilds having his head stuck in it. Mind you I took off the foam filter and the plastic intake guard. By the time I got him out his one eye was all bulging out. Couple days later his eye went back to normal...but now I make sure I turn of the pumps when ever I change the filter.

I have found a couple of dead bodies in my pumps, but I always attributed it to catching dead fish.


----------

