Filter help

[Stark]

I've recently moved my betta from a 1 gallon tank to a 5 gallon Aqueon mini-bow. Generally, things are fine.

I've read a ton about the filters and I'm a little confused. Hopefully someone can help me out here :)

He doesn't have a problem with the outflow but instead there is a tiny spot in the tank that almost sucks him in. I've seen it affect him a couple of times, but this morning while I was watching he almost couldn't escape.

Everything I read about mellowing the filter seems to include baffling the outflow. Will this decrease the suction on the intake? I've had to unplug the filter in the meantime.

I've also seen elsewhere online that you can use nylons on the intake to slow the filter pump. Does this work? Is it more appropriate in this situation?

Thanks for the help! I know there's a lot of threads on this stuff but the search function is a bit clunky. I couldn't seem to find anything that really addressed this issue even though I'm pretty sure I'm not the first one to ask

[DragonFish]

If he is having trouble with he intake rather then the outflow, you can certainly baffle the intake. The foot of some Nylon womans pantyhose secured with a rubber band or two works, though there is also a filter sponge made by fluval that fits over most filter intakes.


If you can't find that, another option is to get some other filter sponge and stuff a little inside the intake.....that is currently what I've done to the filter in my Aqueon 5.

[Stark]

Thank you! (Stark thanks you too)

[DragonFish]

Haha, you're both very welcome! :)

[Stark]

I put the nylons on the intake but he still seems to struggle with it some. I did order the filter sponges for the intake so once those come hopefully that will fix it. In the meantime I'm just trying to keep his water clean.

I do have a massive algae/bacteria bloom with lots of nasty protein slime on top, but it seems to be harmless and I'm hoping it will go away with time and filtering.