Powerhead Puffer Problem! Need suggestions please!

[sbpbasme76]

I have an Aquaclear Powerhead 802 and one of my puffers keeps gettting suck on by it! Luckily no really damage has been done to the puffer but thats proabbly becasue I turned the powerhead off on time! So for the past few days may tank has been running without a powerhead (Could this by why I have a brown alge problem?I started another thread about that) I have decided to run a tube down to the bottom fo the tank( hopefully that will reduce the suction pull on the fish)but the problem is that I cant have it to close to the bottom cause its a sand substrate! Should I even have a powerhead at all if its not being used with an undergravel filter? What do i use in place of the powerhead if that is the case? Thanks!

[OrionGirl]

Couple options. Using a tube to change where the power head is drawing water from might help, or just move the powerhead so the intake is blocked by rocks, so the puffer can't get close to it.

You could also get the prefilter for the powerhead, but you would have to clean it regularly. Changing the direction of the powerhead (if it's a reversible one) might help as well.

Yes, reducing water movement can allow diatoms to thrive, as well as some of the red slime algaes.

[FishBait]

Can you get a strainer for the intake? A friend of mine had a masked dogface puffer that caught the intake of his one Hagen 802 I think it was. We piled the rocks around the thing but he managed to find another way in! Looked kinda funny to see this giant softball size balloon stuck to the pump, he gave himself two black hickies that made a figure eight pattern. He then took a bioball and stuck it in the intake of the pump to keep him from getting caught on it.