How much current??

[shadowcat]

I have a 285L tank, 4 ' long, with 2 L75's, 1 L114, 2 Syno. Brichardi, 1 Syno. Angelicus, 5 Siamese Flying Foxes and 5 Torpdeo Barbs. I just upgraded my pumps to push over 1500GPH thru the tank, length-wise, in a river tank setup. This LOOKS like a heck of a lot of water movement. I have a Mag 950GPH pump with a DIY spraybar about half way down on one end angled up at about 30-40 degrees towards the surface. This creates a large amount of flow across the top to the far end where it rolls down that side and back across the bottom, in addition to an Aqua Clear 500 HOB and a Rena XP3 also pumping longwise down the tank. The Flying foxes and T. Barbs seem to love playing in the current from the spraybar and will swim right up to it in the teeth of the outflow.........Now in my loach tank, where I have a similar setup, everybody seems happy, even my Syno. Eupterus, but this tank seems to have a lot more water movement, although "on paper" it should be about the same. There are numerous caves and rockwork for the fish to get in calm places.......Is this too much of a good thing?? Given that most if not all of these fish come from fast flowing streams and rivers I would expect them to be comfortable with this, but I'm asking for input from other folks who keep similar fish or have similar setups.

[MatsP]

As long as there is a mix of moving water and more still sections, I'm sure the fish are just happy to have a lot of movement in the water.

I haven't got quite as much movement as you, but I have a couple of my tanks touching 10x turnover rate, which is definitely not too much for the fish. Sound like you are looking at about 20x or thereabouts. I don't think that's too much.

--
Mats

[shadowcat]

Yes, there are "quiet sections" where the current seems to be minimal, mostly on the discharge end, below the spraybars, in addition to the caves/rockwork. This level of flow is fairly common in Loach setups, 20x or more tank volume.....Initially, I had the 950gph spraybar aimed below horizontal, more towards the bottom. It looked like the aqautic version of a hurricane!!!...so I tilted it up more towards the surface, which is giving that circular rolling current across the top and back down the far end. Thanks for the input MatsP:)