# Prefilter is killing my Aquaclear



## FishFlake (Mar 7, 2010)

Has anyone had this problem?

I added an ATI Maxx 1 prefilter to my Aquaclear 70. After a month the AC could no longer pull enough water through the prefilter. It chugs along, gets real noisy and no water passes through the AC. When I remove the prefilter the AC work fine. Since then, it only takes a couple days before it quits.

I clean the prefilter with each water change 1 x per week

The simple solution is to just stop using the prefilter, but it makes a big difference in water clarity as well as filter maintenance.


----------



## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

Cleaning the pre-filter once a week is obviously not often enough.


----------



## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

It sounds like your prefilter is too fine and clogging fast.
Prefilters generally are designed to prevent the need to clean filter media by catching some of the larger waste products from the water column.
However, the prefilter media or sponge should be somewhat course so it doesn't clog too fast.

With my AC's I prefilter using the sponge designed for aquaclears.
I cut it to size or buy the size that fits on the intake.
Then I cut a slit through the sponge and slide it on the intake of the filter.
Course enough not to restrict flow for a couple of weeks but if you clean them with your weekly water change it will work best in terms of flow.


----------



## kinesis (Aug 20, 2009)

I use a Mag-Drive submersible pump foam pre-filter for models 2 thru 7 for my aquaclears 70 & 110, they're a perfect fit and never clog.


----------



## DrTim's (Jun 8, 2010)

How about getting a sponge with a larger pore size?


----------



## Cento (Mar 30, 2005)

noddy said:


> Cleaning the pre-filter once a week is obviously not often enough.


I'd agree with noddy. You must have a very large amount of debris floating around and therefore have to give it a squeeze more often.

Also, clogging is part of its job. I have the same one and I use it so that it doesn't suck up baby shrimp or other fish eggs into my canister. But, if you don't really need it and you don't really want to keep up with the maintenance of it, get rid of it... :thumb:


----------



## FishFlake (Mar 7, 2010)

Hey thanks everyone for the feedback. Didn't realize anyone had responded as I didn't get an email notification and have been too busy to check in lately. I'll try some of the suggestions offered here, but until I do I've simple removed the prefilter.


----------



## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

For what it's worth, this is one of the main reasons that I stoped using those filters. If you use sand as a substrate, then you need a pre filter on them, and as you see, either they need rinsing every two or three days or the filter doesn't work properly.


----------



## FishFlake (Mar 7, 2010)

Yeah, I have sand as well as Rainbow cichlids and plecos that regularly go blasting around the tank stirring everything up. It really is a messy tank compared to my tangs who are quite tidy in comparison.


----------



## Duke79 (Jul 16, 2010)

I have a Fluval Edge foam sponge on the input tube on my Aquaclear 110. Fits perfectly on the tube and just filters out the larger debris from the tank. I also have the Mag-Drive submersible pump foam pre-filter for models 2 thru 7 on the input tube of my Marineland C-360 and it works great. The Mag-Drive foam prefilter is a bit more coarse than the Fluval Edge foam sponge so it would probably work better for you.


----------



## AnnaFish (Aug 9, 2006)

> With my AC's I prefilter using the sponge designed for aquaclears.
> I cut it to size or buy the size that fits on the intake.
> Then I cut a slit through the sponge and slide it on the intake of the filter.


That is exactly what I do.

But to be honest. I hate my aquaclears.

When I first started keeping fish my LFS was hocking the aquaclears hard.

But yeah. Sand + Aquaclear = most annoying sound ever.

I like the Tetras way better and when a bunch of money falls out of the sky I am going to swap all of mine out.

Or I'm going to go to tractor supply co, buy a sump pump, and make a filter out of a five gallon bucket and some tubing and say "suck it."

(see what I did there?)


----------

