Filter killing my community fish

[CRUSHER]

Every morning i find at least 4 or five of my tetras stuck to my filter intake. The filter is a aqueon 55 on a 45 gallon tall. Should i put a prefilter sponge over the intake? would the sponge make the filter work harder?
I need to do something to stop the suicide!

[SunnyHouTX]

Sounds like the fish are dying of something else and the carcasses are getting pulled in by the filter.

[nightster]

Fish probably died BC of something else and the current is pulling to the intake. Just my .02...

[eklikewhoa]

Agree with the others theres something either weakening them or bringing closer to death and tge filter is just speeding up tge process

[CRUSHER]

funny thing about it, it only happens at night... sleeping fish would be in a weak sort of state

[Totenkampf]

is the tank planted? O2 levels will drop at night if it is.

[eklikewhoa]

Planted or a tank with a decent amount of algae...

[CRUSHER]

Tot...
It does have a few plants plus a micro bubble wand. i pour a cap of Flourish Excel each morning. I do have a heater on each end of the tank and the killer filter is right next to one. Sad, i bought four neons to go with the only one i had and the next morning all four were on the filter and my only one was just swimming around looking for his new buddies... :(

[eklikewhoa]

So these are new fish that are biting the dust?

[Totenkampf]

i think i would look into their acclimation if the new ones are dying. of course you can put a sponge around your intake just to remove that as a variable but this will slow your filter flow rate down. maybe back off on the excel to every other day until you know whats going on since it does have aldehyde in it. im not sure how fish tolerate aldehyde but it does a number on snails, fungus, and algae.

[Totenkampf]

it seems it always gets down to one neon though, i bought some fish from dustin the other day and he gave me his last survivor..fortunately they school with cardinals well so hes happy

[eklikewhoa]

I would agree with the acclimating part and throw in the quality of the stock?

Ive used excel to the point of excess without any problems but the quality of the livestock and the will to live plays a big role, most of my tanks are overfiltered and would easily siphon up any weak fish but those that want to live or acclimate to the new tank stand up to it quite well. Right now I have a 2217 running my 30g and have yet to see any micro boraras get sucked up and they tend to be on the sensitive side and not great swimmers against the strong filtration.

[nightster]

Cap full of flourish a day for a heavily plated 55g tank, I think that's what the bottle says. Ease back on the flourish to every other day and see if that does it. Ask me how I know....

[eklikewhoa]

Cap full of flourish a day for a heavily plated 55g tank, I think that's what the bottle says. Ease back on the flourish to every other day and see if that does it. Ask me how I know....

how do you know?

LOL!

[nightster]

I killed 20 penguin tetras, and once I stopped dosing flourish everyday the last one survived. Lost 18 that night and 2 more had died when i got home from work. The last of the mohicans, as I like to call him, is now the dominant of the new group of 5. Lol