On Sun, 24 Apr 2005 20:34:41 +0100, "Ken Wilson"
wrote:



How much water movement is appropriate really depends on the species.
Gouramis live in still water in the wild. They don't like moving
water. Moving water also destroys their bubble nests.


Yes - i noticed him (it? dunno - my wife wanted an electric blue fish and i
know which side my bread is buttered - or rather who butters it) blowing
bubbles - but his mate died in a loss of plot incident in my old tank (about
half the size ) about a year ago. so it will have to remain spinsterish
becuase i understand two male gouramis get territorial and that winds me up.

Of my 3 Blue Gouramis, 2 are males. They have their territories and
will sometimes attack the visitor, but not often and no damage has
ever resulted in over 2 years. The males are about 6 inches in
length.

My advice is to turn your filter to maximum water flow and aim the
water stream at the nearest wall. This way you have maximum water flow
without the excessive water movement.

My two 330s flow directly from back to front. I see fish swim in the
flow all the time.

Thanks.

You are wrong. The filter does not remove nitrate. It converts
ammonium and nitrite into nitrate.

i understood that the bacteria turned ammonia to nitrite and that others
turned that into nitrate - and that the name of the game was to encourage
the wee beasties to grow on the filter media - but i also thought that the
nitrate was gobbled up by the live plants (aside form the water change
method) but that it needed lots of aeration of the water to do so. when i
turn the flow up I twiddle the aeration button at the same time to give lots
of bubbles and i thought that was helping to reduce the nitrate level BELOW
the level coming in from my tap water (as it is eg today). Can't find where
i got this notion from though - how far out is it?

ken



Have you measured your tap water for nitrates? Mine comes in at zero
nitrates.