How to protect an anemone from a powerhead?

[stroid]

The purpose of this thread is to give suggestions on how to protect your anemone from the evil powerhead! As reefers we often get nems and often we make the mistake of not protecting our powerheads from our wandering nems. There are several different options on how to protect the nem but I would like to hear more suggestions. I am looking to increase flow with powerheads but I am not going to risk my RBTA.

Please post what kind of powerhead you are using and how you protect your nem from getting sucked up into it.

MJ 1200---Stuffed sponge in the intake.
Pros: Nem doesnt get sucked up.

Cons: Must be cleaned often. Sometimes the sponge gets sucked up into the impeler and must be pulled out(makes an annoying noise)

 

[flyingarmy]

Bio-ball on the intake!

 

[glxtrix]

what I've always done was cut a cube of foam (from the aqua clear prefilter blocks sold at any petsmart for a few bux) on one osde of the cube cut an X in the middle and slip the power head into the X. That way nothing is stuffed anywhere, very little flow restriction (depending on how thin you cut the block to the size of the intake) Works like a charm.

 

[victor626nj]

plastic canvise

 

[stroid]

glxtrix;106622 wrote: what I've always done was cut a cube of foam (from the aqua clear prefilter blocks sold at any petsmart for a few bux) on one osde of the cube cut an X in the middle and slip the power head into the X. That way nothing is stuffed anywhere, very little flow restriction (depending on how thin you cut the block to the size of the intake) Works like a charm.

Yes I have done that as well and it works great as well. Hmm Mark thats not a bad idea do they sell individual bio ball lol

 

[stroid]

Victor626nj;106623 wrote: plastic canvise

Can you elaborate on that?

 

[victor626nj]

 

[glxtrix]

I'd still imagine they could possibly find theur way into that still tho. I've used that before but with fish. they sell that at michaels or pretty much any craft store near the knitting section. I believe they are something like $.50-$.80 a piece. And they are 8x10 or something like that.

 

[flyingarmy]

Stroid;106624 wrote: Yes I have done that as well and it works great as well. Hmm Mark thats not a bad idea do they sell individual bio ball lol

Nope but you can have one when you stop by tonight!

 

[stroid]

Cool Mark I may need to grab one from ya.

My concern about nems is that they move randomly sometimes and they always seem to find that one unprotected piece of equipment. I am going to try some of the suggestions soon. Keep them coming this will help people in the future.

 

[glxtrix]

another thing you could try to do to make your anemone not move is place some rocks around its foot....or ultimately have a rock with a decent size hole and place the anemone in there. If it feels that its foot is protected, it'll generally stay put. At least thats my observation with anemoies.

 

[flyingarmy]

How about stapling it to the rock? :boo:

 

[sparksfly]

How about how to protect them from a koralia??? I just lost my rose tip that I thought was to big to get caught in a koralia. Well I was wrong.:sad:

 

[jgoal55]

I dont have an anemone but I have heard that you could also wrap fine mesh filter/media bags around the PH intake or in the case of the Koralia around the whole thing....problem is it is ugly as all hell.

 

[sparksfly]

I was thinking maybe a net thing that I could kind of wrap around it and tie it on with something. But I haven't found anything.

 

[glxtrix]

I'm a fan of the staple method as mentioned by mark.

 

[dakota9]

#1 method would be to provide it with a habitat it likes, as it will move less.

The #2 method is to not stack rocks against the glass. My nems would have to crawl down the rock pile, cross the substrate then climb up the glass to get to the power head. The one exception to this rule is when the nem decides to go floating around the tank, which has only happened once with me a few hours after I put my first anemone in the tank. It found the Tunze but fortunately lived through the ordeal and hasn't moved from his pearch I built for him since after he grabbed on to it.