I don't recomend

[Majmanor]

Hi;
I got a new Mini Bow 5 to put my adult guppies in, this makes my fourth fish tank of various sizes.

Any way, I didn't want anything very big for them. I set it up everything going fine, except the filter that come with it. It runs to hard for the tank and has already sucked three of my guppies against the strainer and killed them almost killing a female betta that I had in the tank as well.

I spent way to much money on this tank to be having this kind of luck. The filter is not adjustable and the manual that come with it is not for that filter.

It has really upset me because of course I don't like to loose any of my fish, but the last one it got was one of my favorite she was a deep purple and pregnant. While I know there were no guarantees I was hoping some of them would be the same deep purple. The others were very beautiful males with lavender and orange in them. I still have my purple male.

Thank you for listening.

 

[rocketshrimp]

I would get filter floss and rap it around the intake to create a pre-filter and it may cut down on the flow a little bit. Or you could get a Aqua Clear mini sponge replacement and cut a slit in it and slide it on the outside of the intake. Hope it works out sorry about your fish.

By the way what kind of filter are you using?

And welcome to Myfishtank.net its the best

 

[AmazonTankz]

Yes, Welcome Majmanor,

Very sorry to hear about your fish, accidental death is always hard because you aren't as prepared for it like you might be with a sick fish. I lost my favorite betta in a filter accident as well, but it was very different then your situation.

I am not familiar with the filter mini bow 5...is ia one of those that eclipse uses where it is in the hood? Or is it like a regular HOB. Either way, rochetshrimps sugestion is a good one. I would try covering up the intake with some sort of mesh to cut down on the water movment...

 

[catfishmike]

i am curious.how long has your tank been running for?i mantain a guppy tank for my grandmother and it's a minibow 5 equiped with a penguin mini which is a much more powerful filter than the wisper that comes with the minibow5.i have more guppy fry than i know what to do with,none ever get sucked up the filter. almost always when a fish gets stuck to the intake of a filter,the fish i sick.even the smallest fish can avoid very large filtration.i'm wondering if perhaps there is something else affecting our fish?

 

[mike the zealot]

I would have a hard time believing that that filter was powerful enough to actually suck a healthy living fish to its death. It's likely they were already dead or on their way out, and ended up stuck to the filter. How long had the tank been set up when it happened, and how often are you doing water changes?

 

[SoulFish]

i would agree that they all died then were sucked onto the filter

 

[Jawz]

There is a whisper on the 5, and i have the mini whisper on my 2.5 which i have set to fully speed and its never sucked up any of my baby mollys or platies.

 

[Majmanor]

Thank you for your reply. We have since re-engineered the filter a Whistper Economy and all remaining fish are fine.

The tank had not been set up long, but I used the same water, if this makes any since. I just transfered everything over to this tank.

We called the company to talk to them about it and they said it was bad water. Also that this pump, is supposed to pump over 95 gallons of water an hour. I do not know what my other pumps pump an hour.

The filter I had been using was a Whisper 2-5 at full power and it has done great. I put that in there for awhile until we could get the other one working well.

As for my fish being sick, that could be but they have not shown any signs of being sick. In fact it had my female betta suck up against it and she could not get away and as soon as I turned the filter off she swam away.

This is the first time I have had anything like this to happen and to be honest it terrified me, as well as the fact that it got one of my favorite fish. I mean I had looked at them not an hour before and they were all fine and then I looked over again and there she was up against the pump just like the others.

(They are set up in my living room and kitchen where I see them all the time. )

Thank you all for your response.

 

[FroggyFox]

Bettas don't do well with filters at all...that one is not surprising to me. Their fins don't allow them to be strong swimmers. For that to happen to the guppies though is wierd. I found some fry accidentally while doing a water change yesterday...even the pull of the gravel vacuum wasn't enough to suck the fry into the bucket...I think a healthy guppy, ESPECIALLY an adult would not be pulled into a filter.

95 gph sounds a bit high for a 5 gallon tank...but that might just be my opinion. Also...if it was a new filter and you didn't move the filter media from the old filter to the new filter...just using the same water from another tank wouldn't do anything for the cycling of your tank, so it is possible that your tank was cycling and made the fish weaker than normal with the high levels of ammonia/nitrites.

 

[rockpuppy]

My experience with the MiniBow 5 and it's filter is also very negative. I got one as a Christmas present and decided to make it a Betta tank. The filter was so powerful that it blew the betta around the tank and he had to struggle just to go from one end of the tank to the other.

My solution was to replace the filter with another of the same type that had a flow control on it. This cut down the current to a more tolerable rate and the betta was MUCH happier.

The MiniBow then deleveloped mysterious cracks in the side of the tank. I think there were 5 of them and they just kept getting bigger! Fearing for Bubbles the Betta's life I bought a 10 gallon tank for him. I sent email and pictures to the company that makes the MiniBow 5 and they sent me a brand new one. They were very nice about it and told me that the engineers had no clear idea why it would have cracked like that.

I took the orginal filter from the first MiniBow 5 and put it on the new 10 gallon. It does a great job on the 10 gallon making me believe that the original filter on the MiniBow 5 is just way too powerful for some fish.

I think they selected an overly powerful filter because they know that most of the people atracted to this type of all-in-one tank will be beginners and will over stock their tanks.

I have not started up the new MiniBow 5 yet but when I do, I will carfully consider what kinds of fish I put in there.

 

[Delia97]

I almost bought a mini bow for my Goldfish, Jay.

I have a hawkeye 2 gallon and it's just awesome. Such a rugged little tank and I enjoy the undergravel filter.

does anyone make 3-5 gallons that use the undergravel? Im now wary of Mini Bow...