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I mentioned in a previous post that I have a preformed pond liner as my turtle's habitat. The middle is round with two basking platforms on either side. I set my filter up to the intake is closest to one of the basking platforms and the output is about a foot away (above the water's surface) flowing in the opposite direction of the intake. It basically flows counter-clockwise.

My question is how the debris in the middle of the circle ever makes it to the intake? There are a bunch of small pieces of cuttlebone accumulating in the middle that are just lying on the bottom of the pond and the output isn't able to push them to the intake. Do I need another output or pump of some sort to push all the water around? What is the best way to get the entire thing flowing in the same direction? Thanks!

A filter won't catch everything. You might need a better filter or an additional powerhead to help with the circulation. Some people use multiple filters.

Do you typically submerge the powerhead and keep the output above the water's surface for agitation?

The primary function of an aquarium filter is to house bacteria and/or chemicals that converts toxic waste (ammonia) and convert it into something less harmful (nitrate). Secondary is that it sucks up and traps free floating detris.

If your seeing debris in the tank that is sitting on the bottom then it will not be picked up by the filter. You'll have to remove it manually. As Steve mentions you can try increasing circulation, but I think heavy large bits such as pieces of cuttlebone and fresh poop will need to be removed by netting it.

I would recommend a marineland maxi-jet 1200. That's what I usu in my 300 gallon. It helps out a lot! They do make better circulation pumps but they can get real pricy. I think you will find the 1200 affordable.

You need some bit of surface agitation, so as long as the filter or power head is doing it, it should be fine.

Awesome, thanks for all the advice guys! I picked up an 800 GPH Powerhead by BrainyTrade and let it run for a bit yesterday. It seems to be working great as it's submerged and helping with circulation and the output is above the water level for agitation.

I also grabbed a gravel vacuum that basically siphons water (and whatever debris is lying around) to an external bucket. I'm still on the fence about it as the water siphons with no problem but only some of the debris is picked up. As small of a thing as it is, do you guys have any suggestions for the best type of netting to manually scoop things out?

Any little fish net will work. If you want to pick up finer stuff you could look into a brine shrimp net. What size is the syphon?

The nozzle is 1.5" diameter x 12" long. The short hose is 1 foot long and the long hose that goes into the bucket is 5.3 feet long.

Sounds kinda small. You might look into a large Aqueon syphon. Then again I have a small and large size and can't say one sucks up more than the other. Its just that with the small one it takes a really long time to clean the tank.

Okay, cool, I might look into picking up a larger one. So far, the XP3 and powerhead are doing a decent job. Most of the debris is cuttlebone pieces that are just too heavy for the intake to suck up.

Random: I noticed some small "piles of dirt" that actually contained really small red worms. I didn't want to create a new topic as I've seen the hitchhikers thread. My question is even though these appear to be fairly normal and harmless...should I be getting rid of them or is there anything beneficial by allowing them to wriggle around in the water or be trapped in the sponges of the filter?

Can't comment on the worms because I have not had them. Cuttle bone is all but impossible to syphon. Just started feeding my DBT"s cuttlebone and what a mess. I just sprinkle their sticks with repti calcium now according to label instructions no more mess. I have an fx6 in a 40 gallon tank and it can't even pick up cuttlebone

When is the last time you cleaned the filter? That's probably where the worms are hiding.

It was set up just last week in the brand new pond liner I bought. It's only been running with the correct media for about a week at this point, while it ran for 48 hrs using the "optional" setup prior to that. I wouldn't assume that it's already that dirty but I could be completely wrong.

How often are you cleaning your filter and how exactly are you cleaning the mechanical? I know to rinse the ceramic rings with tank water and I'm not using any filter floss (though I do have poly-fil in case I should be).

I clean my filter's once a month. I clean the sponges in tap water but then I put them in a bucket of tank water to soak while I clean the rest of the filter. Ceramic rings in tank water. Change the carbon and purigen. I'm trying to figure out where the worms came from? Don't use filter floss it will clog up really fast.