best method to child "fish" proof koralia 3&4's

I hope your right, I just dont like the little guys hanging out in the 10 square inches of the tank that are most dangerous to them considering they only have to share the whole 90 with 2 other fish. They spent all day exploring every nook and cranny and as soon as the lights went out they headed straight to the corner between the heater and the K4, they are only 6 months old and about 1/2" long

 

How about some nylon tights? My LFS use them in the anemone tank over the power heads.

 

I agree with it not being an issue of the powerheads being too strong. I have a 1" flasher wrasse that has momentarily been caught offguard by my turned down Vortech when it ramped up while she was playing around the powerhead and got stuck on the guard for a split second, she then easily pulled herself off and swam away as if nothing happened. If a fish that small can do it I don't see how anything but an unhealthy fish or an extremely bizarre circumstance could produce a bad effect.

With a powerhead that does not change it's velocity I don't think it's very likely a healthy fish could get stuck to it, most of them spend their lives swimming in ocean currents that are far stronger than the ones in any of our tanks, they're pretty good at it.

Not saying it can't ever happen but I think it's more likely that a fish would die or have a health issue and then get caught in the PH current and end up stuck to it than it getting stuck and then dying. Apparently healthy fish die or come down with some bizarre/non-obvious health issue every day and more than likely they will end up getting stuck in the current if they're not wedged into a rock at the time.

Just be careful of blaming the effect and not the cause.

 

When I had my occelaris clown, I went downstairs one morning and found him stuck to the overflow. He couldn't pull himself off of the overflow, even though he was a healthy fish. I had to turn off the pumps for a minute to let him get off; he swam away perfectly fine after that.

 

+1 I have many smaller fish and none have had any trouble next to my Koralias, I have 2 of the Evo 750gph, IMO it shouldn't be a danger to them if they are healthy unless it's the highest gph model maybe.

 

Well this morning my fears have been realized.
I lost the smaller of the 2 clowns and thinking about the comments in this thread you may be right. I suspect he didn't get enough to eat yesterday even though I tried to feed them several time throughout the day.
They had to chase it around a bit more than they were probably used to doing in the nursery tank they came out of

On a more positive note the survivor has found and appears to be hosting the RTBA this morning :trampolin:clapping:

 

wow, sorry to hear about that! I have a koralia 8 in my tank (and 2 4's) and have not had any problem with my fish getting sucked up. I did make the mistake of turning off one of my smaller koralia when I was target feeding one day. I looked up before plugging it in and found my midas blenny swam into it and was making it his home. I have yet turned it back on because he loves it in there (even though I have barnacles for him)

 

Sorry to hear about the clown.

How long have these fish been in your tank?

If a fish is well established and is well fed and healthy, one day of underfeeding, or even no feeding, shouldn't weaken them that much they should be able to survive off of fat reserves for days at least.

 

I brought them home from the reef club meeting saturday afternoon about 6pm. The stress of traveling to the meeting, being displayed, caught and bagged, transported again etc. probably did not help but they both looked happy and healthy at lights out, I watched them both current surf for quite awhile yesterday.

 

Yeah if they're new to the tank especially after that sort of an ordeal unfortunately I can't say it's too surprising, to me anyway. Like you said sometimes the stress of moving to a new tank really takes a toll on the fish and doesn't always register in their outward appearance or behavior for a little while, if at all.
Good luck with your next ones!