Too much flow from Penguin 200?

[Ryan32185]

I have a 10-gal tank and just stocked it with 6 Bleeding Heart Tetra's and a male Betta. I have a Penguin Bio-wheel 200 filter and I just got it running and it works great but I am concerned about the flow rate. Is it too much for my fish? Any help would be much appreciated. I like the filter alot and would like to keep it but if the flow rate is too much for my little fish then I will have to get a smaller version.

-Ryan

 

[Ryan32185]

Oh, it filters 200 gallons per hour. The fish, well the Bleeding Hearts for example, don't seem to be bothered too much but do seem to hang in the back of the aquarium. Maybe this is just because I just stocked the tank.

Should I change my filter to a less-powered model or am I ok?

 

[mooman]

That is alot of flow. There are several things you can do to slow it down. Placing a prefilter over the intake (cylindrical sponge that fits over the intake) may help. If you take out the impeller you can file down the blades (the shorter you go the less flow you will have). You can also remove two blades (opposite each other) to reduce the flow even further. Good Luck.

 

[Bobnova]

I have the same tank and the same filter, what i did was put a filter sponge over the intake (i have some fairly small white clouds, i didn't want them getting sucked up). I also put the filter in the far left corner, and put a small chunk of sponge in the outlet, pinched between the wheel cover and the outlet ramp.
This slowed the water down, and allowed me to aim it into the corner of the tank.

The left side of the tank has a fairly strong downdraft in that corner, and quite a bit of surface movement into the corner, while the right side of the tank has a nearly still surface, stuff slowly drifts around, but it's very very gentle.

My white clouds (ranging from half an inch to most of an inch) are quite happy, and even the Ghost Shrimp i have don't mind the current.
If the shrimp go into the left forward part of the tank that get blown around pretty well, but they stay out of it most of the time.