# Filter for my shrimp colony?



## jschall (Apr 13, 2009)

I have a 10 gallon tank planted with amazon swords. Right now, it is filtered by a homemade air-powered filter - an old fish food can with a 1/2" pvc lift tube, filled with gravel, topped off with a filter pad. Obviously this is VERY UGLY. I want to do away with this and get a better filter.
This is a shrimp colony tank, I don't want anything that can damage a baby red cherry shrimp.
Whatever I get, it needs to hide away easily.

Here's a picture, and I'm open to ANY other suggestions, as well. I'm getting a black background tomorrow, but I put up this piece of aluminum foil as an experiment.


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## jschall (Apr 13, 2009)

Additional requirement: I want it to be easy to use as a CO2 diffuser.
I might just get a little powerhead, put a prefilter on it, and have my DIY CO2 bubbling up under it.


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## jestep (Nov 14, 2009)

I use a HOB filter with a sponge pre-filter in my shrimp and my fry raising tanks. The Filter-Max pre filters attach to just about any intake, and work great for keeping fish and shrimp out of the filter intake. I would go with the medium sized one for a 10g tank.


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## gonathan85 (Sep 12, 2009)

jestep said:


> I use a HOB filter with a sponge pre-filter in my shrimp and my fry raising tanks. The Filter-Max pre filters attach to just about any intake, and work great for keeping fish and shrimp out of the filter intake. I would go with the medium sized one for a 10g tank.


I have the same setup. I bought a small square filter media sponge that is normally used for small HOB filters, and cut it down to shape. A simple cut in the "top" of the sponge, and slipping it over the HOB intake is all that is needed. When it comes time to clean the filter, I remove the sponge over the intake, and squeeze it in tank water to clean.

Edit: I tried using filter floss, pantyhose, and some other small screening material over the intake, but they clogged quickly...thus inhibiting enough water from entering the filter.


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## jschall (Apr 13, 2009)

I ordered a couple of these hagen mini elite filters. They looked good for the task so I ordered 2, one is in case I want to make a new nano tank (I do really want to try keeping dwarf puffers)


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