River flow, putting mroe flow into my tank, ideas

[henward]

Decided. My black aro tank, with clowns, pink tails, and 4 fancy plecs will become a river type set up.

Just got myself a tunze power head, and refurbished 2 small via aqua power heads.

Just woncdering, opinions please.

Should I make it so the flow is going one direction

Or should it be mainly one direction and some kinda crossing the other way?

Should I put the power heads from one end pointing to the other or maybe going against the glass so the flow kind goes more along the different parts of the tank. I mean face the power head facing a glass panel as opposed to just right to the other end of the tank.

[Matto]

just try everything and go with what works best

[henward]

lol

yeah fair enough

i guess how do i gauge what works best?

[Matto]

well what do you want ? lol

[livingart]

a river type set up

rivers usually go in one direction

you will need to create eddies to give the fish some respite

[henward]

yeah, thats what i was thinking, the fish in the tank are designed for high flow anyways, which is good i guess.

i will experiment and see what works.

but one direction generally sounds like a logical solution as opposed to a washing machine type flow.

[Sophia]

if there are going to be rocks or wood in the river there will be some sort of natural places for eddies too

[livingart]

while the fish may be designed for it they don't spend their whole day in power mode

[Stella]

I recommend :

(total tank volume) x (30 or 40) = ideal litres per hour for river/fast-flow set-up

I like to have the pumps at one end, aimed horizontally and low down in the tank. Have them flow out over a very large flat stone and a bit of open water, then start piling in the rock all down the tank - virtually no exposed gravel. (fine gravel gets washed out of a riffle naturally anyway). With that there will be all sorts of different currents as the water swirls around.

[Fruju]

Bro, arowanas dont like strong flow too much, especially blacks and silvers, when they are bigger its less of an issue. Plus, parrots are retarded fish, it will get blown around the tank :lol:

If you want a cool river effect slope the gravel from one side to the other, use rocks and spindly driftwood at the shallow end, leave the deeper part clear, simulate a half cross-section of the river. Just a thought.

[henward]

yeah the parrot will be ok, its a tough one.

the black should do ok ith some flow, not too much, ill try it and see how it reacts.

main thing is to provide plenty of areas where they can rest.

gonna try and update

[henward]

I am thinking now maybe the tunze power head will be too powerful lol'

[Ira]

Having a couple big powerheads at the back pointed down the length of the tank usually gives a good swirl to the tank. The whole tank going in circles. Otherwise if you want a proper single directional flow you'll have to set up a closed loop system with intakes on one side and outlets on the other.

[henward]

success!!!!

installed 1 tunze powerhead, quite powerful and 2 small via aquas

i must admit the via aqua's flow tensd to dissipate very fast. I think i will require 1 MAYBE 2 more tunze, to make sure that the flow continues from middle to the last 3/4 of the tank.

my these is from the right woodlands, forest and on the far left open field.

so i want the flow to go around the open field area.

but the tank is long, the tunze only flows to about 2 foot

but, good side isw that the clown loaches are more active! they swin with the flow.

the plecos are also mroe active, they seem to love flow as well.... one even puts himself right in fornto fthe via aqua, i mean right in front of it - LDA33. about 20 cms ish.

fed this mroning, all of them came ou to eat at once! and the clown loaches, the ones that used to hide lots, are not more active.

i dont nkow why but its good!