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Hey all,

Ive been having some trouble getting food to my fish. My tank is a JBJ 12 gallon nano cube DX. This tank has 100 gal per hour with the powerhead right near the surface on the back right of the tank. The water intake is also near the surface on the back left and this has a skimmer device which pulls water from the surface. To clarify, overall there is a significant current in a clockwise direction. The flake food I put on the surface tends to zoom around in a circle and gets pulled into the filter before it will sink. I can sink it with my finger and the fish will get mabey 2 passes at it before it settles somewhere near the back right (under the powerhead is the least current).

I wonder if anyone can help by providing a suggestion of how to fix this. (btw I have lemon tetras in the tank [who dont seem to eat food thats not floating] and nothing really to scavenge the dropped food, so I allways end up over feeding and this certianly doesnt help the water quality or the appearence of the tank) I feel like it should be possible to figure out some device to make the food more available to the fish with less waste.

thanks for any ideas,

Chaos

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- - - Humorous Bit of Wisdom - - -

Can you slow the current through a valve?
or you could just shut it off for the time while your feeding.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

You could get a few ghost shrimp or maybe a snail to help cleanup leftovers.

I can just see the tetras chasing it around and around! Put a finger switch in the power line for the power head. Click it off, feed the fish, click it on. Saves you from all that bending and unplugging then plugging the cord in...

I pre-soak tetra bits for my discus, otherwise they just spit it out. How about pre-soaking a slightly more substantial food like Tetra Crisps. The tetras should hit it as it begins to sink.



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"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Hey,

Turning off the filter is somewhat frustrating, because the surface skimming is provided by an adapter which is held on by suction, when the filter is turned off this plastic piece falls off. Ill have to think about that because turning off the water solves most of the problems.

The shrimp is probably a good idea though. Ive nevery kept any and dont know much about them. For maitnence I was planning on using ottos, but the shrimp would eat leftover flake.

Chaos

Edit: hmm, ill think about the food stuff. I plan on treating them to blood worms reasonably often when I get enough so that they can eat about 1 cubic cm between them.

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- - - Humorous Bit of Wisdom - - -

You can try a feeding ring. Basically it's a plastic... well, ring... that floats on the surface of the water. You then put food in it, and it keeps it in one place. If you were to modify it to put a suction cup on it, or just tie it off so it doesn't swirl around, you could put the food in that. That way, the food stays in the ring and shouldn't get sucked up by your filter.

Albino corydoras are pretty, tough and perfect for your scavening needs. You must have more than one. You are going to have to tame that pump if your tetras will prosper.

Dan Kehoe