I think I'll try the nylon way. I think the foam will be more unattractive.
Also, when you remove the foam for clean it doesn't the gunk get into the
water?



"LeighMo" wrote in message
...
I notice a lot of leaves get into the filter intakes. Do you put
anythingb
on the intake to avoid this or just let them go in and clean often?

Put filter foam or a clean nylon stocking over the intake. Not only does
this
allow you to go longer between cleaning and/or changing the filter media,
it
keeps small fish, snails, shrimp, etc., from being sucked into the filter.

The Aquaclear foam inserts are a good choice. (Don't just use any sponge.
Filter foam is designed to have water pass through it, normal foam/sponge
isn't.) A lot of other companies sell foam prefilters that can be used
with a
variety of filters, too. I use cylindrical black foam prefilters from
petsolutions.com.



Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/