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Apistos and strong currents (or fast moving water)

jowens

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5 Year Member
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88
Location
Boston, MA
I recently upgraded by filtration and it's resulted in a substancial increase in water movement. Many areas of the tank that were once extremely calm are now occupied by fast moving water. The Apistos are adjusting, but they're definetly "working harder" than they were before. Does anyone envision this as a problem for the future?
 

Neil

New Member
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1,583
Location
Sacramento, Ca.
jowens,
It has been my experience that faster water current is not ideal for apistos. I would try to displace some of the flow if your fish are actually having to work from being moved around by the current. Maybe you can point the outlet of you filter toward an edge of the tank so that it only causes severe turbulance at one end. They should probably have some area that is not in direct and heavy water flow. Now if you had dwarf pikes or teleocichla... Neil
 

jowens

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
88
Location
Boston, MA
I'm having some success with a diffusion bar. For each of the last three days I've taken it out and drilled the holes bigger, and it keeps decreasing the current. I say, "there, I'm done"....then I do the same thing the next day. I know, I'm a spaz...

That has solved a lot of it. I also figured out how to turn the flow rate on my new Eheim, which helps at the most important time - feeding. I wasn't as concerned with the fish during regular hours, but at feeding time the current was a real problem.

Anyway, thanks for the advice.
 

aspen

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,033
Location
toronto, canada
j, let the fsh tell you how much current they like and suit the tank to them. if they hang out in the quiet part all of the time, then you have really made the usable portion smaller to them. if your tank is a 55 f/i, and they only like to swim in half of it, then you might as well have just given them a quiet 30 gal. as long as the water eventually moves into the filter, the 'breeze' will be fine, imo. i have an ac mini on my 20 gal, which is set at it's lowest setting. this way i find the fish will use the whole tank, instead of just the side with no strong current. (tetras, rams) obviously if the top of the water goes stagnant, then you need to adjust it up.

rick
 

jowens

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
88
Location
Boston, MA
Thanks Rick. I seem to have found a happy medium through experimentation. Using the Eheim diffusor bar, I periodically drilled larger and larger holes until I could run the thing at full volume without really interfering with the fish. There is enough plants and driftwood in the tank to slow down the currents, particularly at the bottom of the tank where the Apistos hang out.

One of the best features of new Eheim filters is the flow control. You can turn down the flow while feeding so the food isn't blown around the tank, then right back up when you're done. So far it's working great. The filter, which is built for tanks up to 92 gallons, is running at full speed on a 46 gallon tank without causing any problems.
 

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