I guess you haven't had the joy of finding a pair of loaches swimming in the bottom of the Aqua Clear 70, in the space below the media basket ? Or a pair of Celestial Pearl Danios, same filter, same place.
I also recently found about 25 shrimp, 3 different species, in a small Aqua Clear.. the prefilter had come off, which I did not notice right away. So at filter cleaning time, I suddenly had shining little shrimp bodies flying in all directions as they jumped from the filter. Thankfully they all landed in the tank, not on the floor. I eventually had to pour the filter out into a bowl, and there were ten or more shrimp in that, after having picked all the visible ones out.
So now I am a BIG believer in using pre filters. On my AC70s, I am using a Tetra Pond prefilter. Very large, very coarse, but that helps prevent it getting clogged up, makes for easy flow intake for the filter and it looks just like a regular sponge filter. I did have to slice a piece off one side, so it would fit in the space between the tank glass and the uptake tube. I used a chunk of the cut off piece to stuff into the hole at the bottom, as this particular prefilter has a hole all the way through it.
It would not fit a smaller uptake tube unless you stuffed some sponge strips into the hole, as it is a fair size diameter. But smaller prefilters are available, and are easy to make from sponges available meant to go inside filters too. Just cut a hole in the middle that fits your uptake tube and slide it on. Squeeze out as often as necessary, the coarser the sponge, the less often you have to squeeze it out.