Fishkeeping - Gourami tank help

"Wez" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hey everyone,

Just want to think that this group here is awesome, tell your friends
so we can get as many people as possible here. Anyway bak to my
questions. I am just about to set up a 180L gourami tank, I just need
to know what brand and type of filter I should buy because I have heard
that Gourami's like calmer type water to create their bubble nests so I
need a low current good litre/gallon per hour ration. BUT I live in
Queensland, Australia and so I have limited choice compared to some of
u people that live elsewhere. If any Aussie folks, or very helpfull
people like to recommend me a filter that I can get without it getting
shipped halfway around the world and costing buckets of money (cos I
have a limited amount of funds).
Any help would be really appreciated

hi Wez,

I'm in Sydney, so not OS ;)

I have two male Honey Gourami and two internal filters in a 220L tank.

One of them (A Resun Magi-700) puts out a hell of a stream from it's spray
bar (which is submerged in my system) which causes quite a current. The
other is a 350L/H Hailea:

The plants are the way I stop the Resun from stirring up the water at the
other end of the tank. I have two banana lilys (which are cheap to buy from
any fish shop with live plants - about $2.00 each) and they have both shot
up huge surface pads in a very short time. These pads block the surface
turbulence, with the consiquence of very still water at the far end of the
tank.

The Hailea (the smaller one) is placed deep down near the bottom at the
other end and is used for CO2 injection more than filtering, but it too has
a strong outflow - I can adjust this one, so I turn it right down to minimum
flow, just enough to circulate the tank water below back to the Resun, which
does the major filtering.

So between the two filters, the surface vegetation and the placement of
filter two i get a downwards spiraling water circulation in the tank,
leaving one end calm and the other end slightly turbid. I need both on my
tank because the Tetras love a swim against a current.

I've noticed the Gouramis into a bit of a swim against the big filter
though - they seem to enjoy it. That said, the Gouramis also make a mess
down the other end with their bubbles and that water surface always looks
unhealthy to me. When the females arrive I guess there will be some real
bubble nests down there.

I plan on getting some Paradise Fish much later on and they will also need
bubbling area, so there could be a battle of the Labyrinth Fish if I don't
watch it.

Other than that I think the only other alternatives are an air pump and
sponge filter (noisy) or a canister filter, where the outflow is at one end
of the tank and the inflow is at the other. Canisters are quiet, but dearer
and a little more prone to malfunction in comparison to internals IMO, BUT
they are much easier to service and much easier to get CO2 into if you
decide to go that route later.

Lots of broad leafed plants also benefit Gourami because they can "nest" in
the eddies or out of them as they desire. I guess you want to see them
though so I think if you get a couple of 200-350L/H internals with
adjustable outputs (flow and direction) you should be able to set up a flow
in the tank that gives a still top and circulation down below.

You can see my set up on my web site if you can't visualise what I'm talking
about.

All the best,

Oz

--
My Aquatic web Blog is at http://members.optusnet.com.au/ivan.smith