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Flow and Putting fish first.... (wrong forum? Hehe)

Chris Tinker

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25 Jun 2019
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leeds
Hello, so i still need to get more flow in my tank, the plants hardly sway apart from my tall plants at the back, so here is the question and worry.

I have a 4ft tank, currently running the eheim 600 litre filter from far left to right and it slightly pushes to the front of the tank. I also have a 300liter filter with a 16 hole just pumping from back of the right side to the left, which is why my back plants sway.

This current set up creates a good circle motion at top and middle of the tank, but nothing noticable on the bottom.

Now the fish has some rest areas, bottom and bang in the middle due to wood and the current is less strong like the eye of a storm.

My concern being if i add more flow creating more circle motion will i cause distress and make the fish tired?

Am i better putting flow from the back wall to the front? As this is spread out more it will not be as strong, and the plants should get more flow?

What are popular thought putting the fish first?

I also have never seen where angel fish and bolivians live so no idea if strong flow is ideal or not.

As always thanks in advance.
 
Full tank shot. Biggest filter output top left across the short side with a outpipw with holes and smaller one top right back of tank single outlet .
20191125_154231.jpg
 
I also have never seen where angel fish and bolivians live so no idea if strong flow is ideal or not.
Check this page https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/mikrogeophagus-altispinosus/. That'll help you get an estimate of their origin. Then you can research about the river and the flows, but remember: Rivershores have next to no current, so you should have some slow flowing parts in your tank aswell.

How much circulation in L/h do you have? I always aim for 5-10x the aquarium liters per hour.
 
Smaller one 1050 litres

And the 600 is apparently 1050 as well according to google however side by side the 600 seems like a jet and the 350 a trickle lol

So 2200 an hr

Tank is 300litre

7.3 x an hr turn over...
 
yep 7.3 is def ok!5 times is already good enough as thumper said. I also hope u cleaned yr filters as it might block the input and output.
 
If you worry about flow and CO² distribution you can easily check it with multiple drop checkers. :)

For example, create 3 checkpoints at 3 different (suspected) places and monitor the colour change during the cycle. Drop checker fluid needs about 2 hours to react to changes. If you don't notice any colour differences the flow and CO² distribution is most likely ok.

Personally i'm not so sure if 10 x turnover as generally accepted rule of thumb is a fixed value.

This tank was High Tech and ran at 4x turnover for as long as it lived. :) And didn't really experience negative issues and grew into a nice jungle. Nor did i notice any discrepancies with placing multiple drop checkers around the tank.
dscf7481-jpg.jpg
 
Hi all,
What are popular thought putting the fish first?
I don't use CO2, so I'm not too bothered about flow, but I have run tanks with very over-sized filters.

It might be difficult to restrict flow in an Iwagumi, but if you have tanks with plenty of plants and structure it will diffuse flow and create spots without much flow.

I actually like a spot where there is no flow, you can put a flat stone there and the dead leaves etc. should collect there for syphoning out.

cheers Darrel
 
I always put fish first, but flow isn't a bad thing. I nature during low water periods there is a lot of flow in their habitat, but also spots where they can escape flow, same as in our tanks.
The 10 times "rule"is a guideline originating from overestimated manufacturers claims about the output of their filters. Goal is and has always been getting enough flow to ALL parts of the tank in order to remove pollution from and bring fertilisation to all the parts off all plants.
 
Tunze used to do a system many years ago that switched the flow from two different pipes on a timer. It was to mimic tidal rivers but may also help eliminate or reduce dead spots?
 
Always try to keep the flow running in the same direction from the back of the tank at the top pushing to the front, this will make the flow run down the front of tank to the bottom then along the bottom and back up again.
To give the fish a rest I use circulation pumps connected to the Co2 timer so the additional flow is only on whilst the Co2 is flowing
 
Antony, thats pretty similar to my preference.
I go along the long side of the tank with the external filter flow and have an additional eheim Skim 350 with the variable output pipe (eheim 4004600) to the top to create some more surface agitation. The skimmer is only running while i supply CO2.
 
Nowadays we could easily choose for a DC12/24 volt water pump and run them over a controlable PWM dimmer timer.

Then you can create dynamic flow patterns, in and decreasing it over several timestamps during the day.

Works like a charm. :) I've tried it for a while and the fish also like the flow to be dynamic. It's more natural to them and it also gives a more natural dislplay in their behaivor. It works best with a duckbill outlet. That also can be redirected once in a while. At times the flow increases they come and play into the jet stream. When it decreases they spread out again exploring the tank.

And it actualy isn't that expensive to install. There are many DC water pumps available nowadays (solar cell/water heating industry) around € 25.- average, the TC420 PWM dimmer timer is available for € 17.- build on a prefilter canister or in a sump and the fun can start already.

:thumbup:
 
May be i am being over fussy.

I notice when refilling the tank the fish love the strong fresh current.. i will ponder all the ideas. Might re adjust the outlet and see, wonder if i am just reacting to what was a hige bbe outbreak. Made a flow change and things got better, however other changes happened too. I will think and may be play around first.

Thank you
 
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