Covering the Overflow box. (1 Viewer)

[Guest]

I just spent two hours "fishing" my jawfish out of the overflow box. There was also about a dozen ghost shrimp living in there. Needless to say since I was doing it a small project turned into a real big mess and I even collapsed one side of my rock work just for kicks. I don't want to do that ever again so what can I use to keep these fish out.

 

[Kyle]

I use a plastic net type material. I bought it at the LFS. The wholes are large enough to not restrict the flow and keep all fish and inverts out.

 

[Wildfire]

Or some standard "white eggcrate" cut to the size of the overflow with nylon ties.....

 

[Guest]

Egg Crate is too big these guys are tiny and so are the shrimp.

 

[Wildfire]

Sorry, I thought you were trying to keep fish out... You MIGHT could try "filter bags" (like for canister media) and see if you could rope off the overflow with that.... It would be a prefilter + fish / shrimp saver

(just like what Kyle said)...

 

[Guest]

Sorry, I thought you were trying to keep fish out

I could care less about the shrimp; I can catch hundred at a time and they probally help out living in the overflow box eating all the food that flows down. It is the stupid skinny jawfish I am trying to keep out they have to be less than a 1/8 of an inch. I guess I'll hit up the local fish stores; I need a new acropora anyway.

 

[robrog]

I was just at Aquatic Center today and they have several different sizes of sponge that go into sumps or refugiums. Something like this at the top of your overflows might work.....

 

[KarenB]

I know what you mean about tiny fish. My neon goby has gotten into the overflow twice now. The first time he ended up down in the sump, and the second time I was able to net him before he got sucked up.....not an easy task, mind you.

I had thought of getting a woman's hair net, the kind that they wear when preparing food and such, or something similar, and stretching it around the overflow somehow. I think the netting might be small enough to keep the fish out.......or a trip to Hobby Lobby (I love that place) and see what I can come up with that's inexpensive.

 

[ScubaMedic]

Window screen has worked for me.

 

[KarenB]

How would you get the window screen to stay on? And don't say duct tape

 

[AggieBrandon]

super glue gel would work.

 

[ScubaMedic]

Either super glue or a little silicon. Either one you would still be able to pull it off if you need to. I used a little silicon.

I have not tried it but I was also thinking of sewing one of those long flexible magnets into the window screen then putting another magnet on the other side of the overflow to hold it on. I'm not sure how well it would work but I was kicking the idea around. It would let you just yank it off when you needed to.

 

[Guest]

I was hoping to find something like a hair net or a shower cap that I could put on it.

 

[Guest]

Well another thing that comes to mind is cheese cloth, it is thin enough to allow things to pass through and it would almost act as another kind of filter, catching some things that have gotten by some of your others. It is just about the same price as the others and the magents would work really well.

 

[KarenB]

Seems like cheesecloth, though, would inhibit things flowing through that you'd actually want to get through......maybe almost too fine of a weave? I use cheesecloth for cooking, and I had thought about that, but that is definitely a disposable, one-time-use item, however inexpensive.

I like the magnet idea. Where would you find one strong enough (with a MagFloat-type strength)?

 

[ScubaMedic]

I don't think it has to be as strong as a glass cleaner magnet. It just has to be strong enough to hold on through the acrylic. I have not tried it so I'm not really sure. I would look at Hobby Lobby for some. I know your looking for an excuse to go anyway. I bet you could find something strong enough. Take a little scrap acrylic with you to try them out.

 

[Cakepro]

At fish stores you can pick up some otherwise worthless little bitty (4" long by 1" wide) MagFloats for $4 or so. That's what I use as my nori clips and they work great for holding airline tubing in place (for drip acclimating) and have other neat uses. They don't clean glass worth a poop, though.

~ Sherri

 

[AggieBrandon]

Yeah I have seen people who use them as powerhead mounts. The epoxy the powerhead to the float and then the magnets hold them in place.

Brandon

 

[landfish]

To keep fish out of any water intake I have found the best thing to use is this plastic mesh that you can get in the craft section in WM. It is super cheep and ridged enough to stand up to water flow. The holes are small enough to keep fish out and large enough to keep water flowing. I think it is used for hoping yarn or some thing but it works great for covering intakes. You might want to give it a try

 

[AggieBrandon]

Yeah that stuff is used to make stuff like cross stitch type things. Don't know the proper word for it. I have seen people use that stuff to cover powerhead intakes and what not to keep anemones out.

brandon