Eclipse 3 Tank And Fry Help

[shadowhywind]

About a week ago I noticed that I had some molly fry swimming around my tank. So i snatched them up and moved them into a breeder trap till I could set up a proper baby tank (will get into that story later). Well the next day I had to scoop up a handful of platy fry as well! Since I now had 11 fry (plus one molly looking like she is ready to pop) I rushed to set up a baby tank to find out, that the tank That i was going to use had a nice crack down it. I ended up buying an eclipse 3 tank (it was greatly priced and has the built in filter/bio-wheel). This is where I now have an issue

When setting up the tank, I thought that the holes for the filter suction tube was two large and the fry would get sucked in. But I liked the built in filter so I placed a lot of plants on the opposite corner and made sure nothing was around the filter hoping that they would take cover in the plants and stay away from the open space. Well My thought was wrong. I found two struggling to swim in the filter. The filter is now unplugged and I have an air stone in their now. Does any one have any suggestions on how to make the holes smaller? A screen that could go around it? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[OldMan47]

Fry protection on a filter tube is easy. Buy a replacement sponge for a filter such as one of the AC HOB filters. Cut a slit in one end of the sponge and slip it over the tube. I used a filter sponge like this one.

Once I had a slit in one end it went over the filter intake and after a month or more it looked like this.

It has the added advantage of acting as an added biological and mechanical filter on my filter.

 

[shadowhywind]

If i could cut the foam correctly, do you think it would be safe to add inside of the intake tube?

 

[shadowhywind]

Just another idea, could i use nylon socks/panty hoses to cover the intake tube?

 

[HCpetraitis]

The nylon socks work but there are some safety concerns...
1. The socks can't be scented or fragranced
2. The socks might not hold the current enough and they could get trapped still.
3. The sock would need to be changed or cleaned every few days.

I like the sponge filter idea more though.

 

[OldMan47]

One of the advantages of putting the sponge filter over the outside is that the area the water goes in through is large so the flow rate at any one point on the surface is low. You could cut a sponge to fit inside but that would just plug up very quickly and would still have the high flows that can trap fry.