MP40’s and foam covers

[Hilltopreef90]

I have some smaller fish so I keep the foam covers on, but they collect food and other debris and look bad.
I’m wondering if it’s worth spending extra on the other cover they offer

 

[Zach B]

I really like the "nem protect" that they offer. I spend a lot less time cleaning it and it protects my critters and fish

 

[redfishbluefish]

I have five MP's in my tank with no covers and never had problems with fish getting sucked into them. Health fish can swim away from powerheads. FYI, the smallest guy is a yellow clown goby.

One note of caution; years ago when I had a starry blenny, when I would turned off the powerheads to feed, he would sit inside one of the powerheads. I just had to be careful when I was ready to turn them back on.

 

[Joe31415]

I don't know how big your small fish are, but I just took them off of mine. I left them on because my shrimp would pick at them and I didn't want it getting pulled in. As it turns out, the shrimp is picking at the food caught in them. Without them, any pieces of food just go right through it and the shrimp (mostly) just leaves them alone. Now, instead of having to take them off and clean them once or twice a week, I can just pull the algae off them once a week or so.
My fish all ignore them (other than playing in the stream). The general consenses seems to be that if you don't have an anemone, you don't need an anemone cover.
If you really want, you can buy (or 3d print) covers that snap over it with much smaller openings.