Also yesterday, I decided to use aquarium sealant to attach the cover to the intake tube because I read all of those horror stories of turt knocking the cover off and getting their little appendages sucked up in the tube. Now, silly me, didn't consider how long 24 hours was. I figured "I have Filbert dry docked for 24 hours, the sealant dries in 24 hours, I should be fine." Upon reading the sealant instructions further, it said to let it cure for 48 before introducing it to water. Crap.
So this led me to find some lace to cover the intake tube with (I think I read on here that you can use lace or tulle). After some snipping and rubber band-ing, I had a brand new intake cover. After a few minutes of adding Filbert back into the tank, I heard a little thwunk. Filbert got sucked up against the intake tube. He didn't get sucked up into it, just against the lace. Panic again. So I pulled him off. And again thwunk. This time I let Filbert get himself off of the intake tube. He did. THREE MORE TIMES THIS HAPPENED. (You'd think that he would learn.) The last time, however, he seemed to just give up and stay there. Again, panic.
Okay, time to rig something up here. I found the cover off of my old filter, but it didn't fit. So with some creative rubber band-ing, I got it to stay on. It is pretty secure, it took some muscle for me to pull it off. The bad thing (or maybe it is a good thing) is that Filbert is not feeling the red and blue rubber bands on the end of the intake tube. He got close enough to check them out once and took off in the opposite direction! Now he's just getting close enough to give it the stink eye. Oh, and before you ask, the rubber bands are pulled tight enough that I'm 98% sure that Filbert won't be able to bite a chunk off. (If I wasn't sure, I'd be panicking again!)
Sorry this post was so long, but I just needed to share my frustrating adventure with y'all!
