Keeping Anemone out of Power Head for Good?

[NanoReefer2025]

Hey everyone,
So, I was planning on getting a bubble tip anemone on Sunday and was puzzling over how I would prevent it from wandering into the power head (it’s a hydor koralia). I dislike the idea of trying to put mesh or something like that over it, simply because it might clog and would probably look pretty ugly. Here’s an idea that may work: what if I put velcro around the base of the power head? I think I heard somewhere that anemones don’t like the texture of Velcro or something, and will stay away. I suppose I could try it out, but I have no clue if the Velcro would be safe. Do you guys have any solutions to this issue?

 

[xxkenny90xx]

The velcro wouldn't work for nems. They get sucked into powerheads either by extending their tentacles way up to the powerhead or just floating around and into the pump, without ever needing to walk up to the pump.

Mesh or a nem guard is your best bet. You can try moving the pump way up high in your tank to make it hard for the nem to get too but that doesn't always work

 

[MERKEY]

Gr

Hey everyone,
So, I was planning on getting a bubble tip anemone on Sunday and was puzzling over how I would prevent it from wandering into the power head (it’s a hydor koralia). I dislike the idea of trying to put mesh or something like that over it, simply because it might clog and would probably look pretty ugly. Here’s an idea that may work: what if I put velcro around the base of the power head? I think I heard somewhere that anemones don’t like the texture of Velcro or something, and will stay away. I suppose I could try it out, but I have no clue if the Velcro would be safe. Do you guys have any solutions to this issue?

Great theory!

I'm very interested in seeing if this works.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Heres an example of how a nem can stretch up into a powerhead without walking up to your velcro

 

[NanoReefer2025]

Heres an example of how a nem can stretch up into a powerhead without walking up to your velcroView attachment 2051757

Yikes! This doesn’t happen too often though, does it? This is the first time I’ve seen something like this, and I have done some thorough searching on R2R. How do you keep your anemone out of the power head?

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Yikes! This doesn’t happen too often though, does it? This is the first time I’ve seen something like this, and I have done some thorough searching on R2R. How do you keep your anemone out of the power head?

I believe they do stretch like this regularly, but they like to have their foot hidden in the rocks so you normally wouldn't see it like in my picture. But that is a pretty large nem that I posted so it's definitely an extreme example.

I just keep my pumps way up high. But that isn't fool proof. I added a new bta a couple of weeks ago and it walked up the glass and right into my power head. Lost a handful of tentacles. So mesh is definitely a good idea.

 

[NanoReefer2025]

I believe they do stretch like this regularly, but they like to have their foot hidden in the rocks so you normally wouldn't see it like in my picture. But that is a pretty large nem that I posted so it's definitely an extreme example.

I just keep my pumps way up high. But that isn't fool proof. I added a new bta a couple of weeks ago and it walked up the glass and right into my power head. Lost a handful of tentacles. So mesh is definitely a good idea.

Ok, I’ll move my power head and look into getting some mesh to zip tie to it.

 

[NanoReefer2025]

Purchased the anemone yesterday! Acclimation went pretty smooth and it seems to be doing well. I just wish there was a way to ensure that the anemone settles in a place that would be visible...