ok LuLu is inQ still.. but one thing that I have learned is big fish ,big poo!!...she by far ,hands down is the messiest fish I have ever known ..I need to get a filter that has big openings in the intake ..her poo just clogs the one she has and If I don't get the poo out in time she likes to rip it up and it makes a mess ..and clouds the water constantly so what kind has the big openings to accomadate her rather large poo

Well one filter I had that wasn't the best quality but might do the job you need is a Tetra whisper filter I got at wally world. It hangs inside the tank and uses a biobag type system. I remember it had large inlet slots and you can fit a lot of media in there. I don't think it's the best choice for a goldie tank, but for a QT with a pooper like you have, it might work

thats the one she's clogging up !!!...LOL...I know what your thinking !! that must be some big poo

Wowzers! What are you feeding that fish!?!

What about a really large aquaclear? I got a '100 gallon' model on sale a while back, that one has some real suction power.

LOl...I 've looked up the aqua clears I'm gonna hafta look into the big ones ..I have a mini I'm sure it dosn't compare to the monster ones though....LuLu eats anything put into the tank ...my whole index finger and some can fit into her mouth yes she has tried to eat my fingers ..she sure loves to poop though ..

i'm not sure how big the intake "grill" is on the tetra filters, but maybe if you added a small powerhead sometimes the additional flow will break up big chunks and make them float more so the filter has an easier time of sucking it up.

would that work?

the only other filters i can think of with fairly large intake grill are canister filters, and it doesn't seem like it'd be within budget for a quarantine tank.

she's moving out soon so it will be an additional filter to the 29 that she will be housed in ..which also has a whisper filter

I am not sure if this would work for your filter, but on a large tank I had in the past there was an inhabitant that made rather large droppings as well.

What I did was took the griill off and modified the bottom a little bit.

I am going to try and illistrate it here, I don't have the tank anymore so I can't show pictures.


( if it doesn't show right on your screen, copy & paste it into notepad on your computer and set it to a fixed width font like Courier New or Fixed Sys )

Normal Filter Grid Looked Something Like This: Yeah it isn't pretty but you'll get the point.



I took my dremel tool and widened all of the holes. In the end It looked like this:



I staggered the holes thinking that if a piece of dropping blocked a hole the force from the adjacent hole would help to rip it apart. Just take care to make sure you don't leave any sharp points. If your grill is plastic, you can heat up the end of a safe wire and melt the sharp point down a little bit.

Anyway, just thought I would post it so that maybe you could just modify the filter and save you a couple bucks.

yep that could work thanks ..she is too big to swim so she's a bottom dweller also because her wen covers her eyes so she just scoots herself around the bottom so less chance of getting scratched by it ..

genius plan!

wonder why i didn't think to cut out some of the grill pieces.

I forgot, I've done that in the past as well!! Good suggestion.

And as for the aquaclears Heidi. I have a mini on my QT tank as well. In my main tank I have a '50' and a '100' model....HUGE difference!

thanks chrissy ..I'm gonna plan on cutting out the grill aa bit ..but still gonna get an aquaclear ..she's a waste machine so the extra filtration is always needed than I have another filter always seeded ready to use as well

Hooray!!!!! I got an aquaclear my 29 is now pumping 350gph for my poop machine LuLu it has the big slots for her poo to go through so no clogging !!...she will be going in it very soon ..!!