Water flow rate

I have upgraded to a 120 litre tank with a Fluval 3+ filter. This is more
powerful than my previous filter and can cause quite a lot of agitation for
the fish (angels, silver sharks, tetras, gourami, platy).

I read in the FAQ that excessive water flow can be bad news but it doesn't
say why. I have taken to turning it up in the morning and they seem to have
a play and ride the current and bubbles and then they go quieter in the
evening so i turn it down for the night.

I reason that that will make for fitter fish and maximise the nitrate
removal (my tap water comes in higher than you chaps seem to run your tanks
on.) without wearing them out but any other considerations?

ken
Hampshire UK

Hmm, one Fluval 3+ is probably inadequate for 120 litre. I have a 50
gallon tank with 2 of them.

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.

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.

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

You could use a baffle or a homemade baffle out of a spray bar or 2 to
reduce current agitation, that way the current energy is diffused over
the whole tank instead of in the corner, on one side, etc.. Attach an
appropriately sized vinyl hose (unless you can find a proper adapter,
if your outlet is squarish I don't know of anymore you can do) to the
fluval 3+ outlet and attach a spray bar or two to the other end, then
place spraybar on one narrow side of the tank and it should generalize
water flow. I have read that well exercised (betta in particular) fish
live a lot longer and have a better immune system. Those fluvals (both
the fluval internal filter series and the multi-stage filtration
canister filters) are great filters and have little to no competition
anymore so they are time proven filters. I love how cheap those high
flow fluval internal filters are, just brilliant! Later!

P.S. - Over a year ago I put a 400 gallon per hour hagen powerhead with
a sponge prefilter, to keep out baby and other small fish, into my 15
gallon tank in my bedroom with just fancy guppies and man I realize it
was overkill but I don't remember any deaths while it operated for over
a month. The only reason I stopped using the powerhead was because it
seemed to solubilize waste into the water and water borne algae grew
and later the algae died off and the cloudiness turned whitish which
meant some sort of bacteria bloom and didn't seem healthy so like I
said I stopped it. There was a quiet area in the tank created by 2 18
inch plastic hornwort plants and a cave decoration so the fish could
rest but I remember those little guys getting quite a workout, maybe
too much of a workout. The sponge filter is a filter-max III sponge
prefilter attached with some of the included adapters to a 2 inch (1
inch diameter) rigid tubing to the soft plastic/rubber/silicone/vinyl
adapter cone that the powerhead came with. The 1 inch diameter rigid
tubing was applied to the adapter cone with a lot of force for a
practically permanent connection and connected to the prefilter adapter
with little force for easy removal in the future but a good enough
connection to be reliable.

On 23 Apr 2005 22:16:10 -0700, "
wrote:

Hmm, one Fluval 3+ is probably inadequate for 120 litre. I have a 50
gallon tank with 2 of them.

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.

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.

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

I have 3 Blue Gouramis in a 75 gallon tank with two Penguin 330s. I
also have a heavy flow of air coming from the bottom middle. The
outflow stirs the water at the top, but does not seem to bother the
Gouramis. Their daytime stations are close to the top spread evenly,
one in each corner and the third in the middle.

I don't see that all of the water mixing disturbs any of the 60
various fish.

dick

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.


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.

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

wrote in message

You could use a baffle or a homemade baffle out of a spray bar or 2 to
reduce current agitation, that way the current energy is diffused over
the whole tank instead of in the corner, on one side, etc.. Attach an
appropriately sized vinyl hose (unless you can find a proper adapter,
if your outlet is squarish I don't know of anymore you can do) to the
fluval 3+ outlet and attach a spray bar or two to the other end, then
place spraybar on one narrow side of the tank and it should generalize
water flow.

Funnily i had started experimenting with this idea on my old smaller tank
before i got the go ahead to upgrade. The new filter can really throw it
out so i thought it better to ask before playing anymore.

Ken

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.



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.


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

You're not too far out. Bacteria take ammonia through nitrite to
nitrate. Plants can also use ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. And yes,
enough rapidly growing plants can pull nitrates down very low. Plants
don't need any more aeration than fish, though. What you're doing is
equalizing the CO2 with atmospheric so the plants always have some CO2
around to use. As long as there's some surface splash or movement, you
should have adequate gas exchange for both fish and plants.

Folks with heavily planted tanks actually add CO2 to the water from
tanks or yeast brews. Then they turn off all aeration and reduce
surface splash to keep the CO2 higher than what normally dissolves from
the atmosphere. The fish have plenty of oxygen from the plants, and the
plants grow much faster.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

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.

In article ,
says...
Have you measured your tap water for nitrates? Mine comes in at zero
nitrates.

You obviously don't live in farm country :-).

--
Homo sapiens is a goal, not a description

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


Mine came in last time at 30. England - water off the South Downs at
Portsmouth.

and its hard which is why i enquired elsewhere about the external filters -
reading up i need to put some peat in to acidify it back to neutral as
well - and that seems to need a multicompartment filter which means external