How much flow ..

[connor]

.. do you have in your loach tank(s)?

The background behind this question is that I'm interested in what would be the optimum for my fish .. plenty of flow to play but without causing stress.

Since I asked, I guess I'll start.

- 300 liter (80 gallon) 120x50x50cm tank
- 1000 l/h Eheim 2217 filter, really dirty (yummy bacteria!) does perhaps 300-400 l/h
- 1000 l/h JBL ProFLow 1000 powerhead with quickfilter cartridge, I guess 600-1000 l/h

Nice amount of flow altogether, the loaches seem to like it, even the angelfish are ok with it. I just wonder if the loaches would want more if they could choose? I noticed that they do play more or less directly in the "jet stream" of the powerhead, but not very often.

-Connor

[Martin Thoene]

In my 125 gallon Clown tank the 500 gph hang on filter, Two Rena XP3s, Seio 1500 and two powerheads add up to approximately 3000 gph turnover. Quite a bit

Martin.

[Emma Turner]

Hi Connor,

Our 1000 litre clown loach aquarium is filtered by 2 x Eheim Professionel 3's, rated at approx 1200 litres each, plus an Eheim Pro II 2028, rated for approx 600 litres. Added to this are 2 x 1600 litre per hour Aquaclear powerheads, and one immensely powerful Tunze Turbelle Stream 6100 pump which pushes 12000 litres per hour. The fish love it.

Emma

[Diana]

I start with a minimum of 10 times the tank volume for a filter (Canister or HOB) then add a powerhead. In the summer I add an air bubbler for more water movement. This is the least that I would suggest. The higher flow rates that Martin and Emma suggest sound great for river and stream fish, a bit much for lake fish.

[chefkeith]

When I gave my clowns a choice, most would choose the tank with the highest in water flow, highest in oxygen, and lowest in light. That was the river tank.

[Ded1]

I am sorry fot this off topic question.

Since I am from Slovenia, and we dont have gallons, only liters, but I do know that there is a big difference betweeen gallons (UK ) and gallons liquid ( US ).

So connor have 80 US gallons tank, but in UK gallons, he have only 66 gallons tank? Am I getting this right?

And when article about clown loaches states minimum 75 gallons, is it refering to UK or US gallons?

Again, sorry for this off topic post connor

[Diana]

The difference between Imperial Gallons and American gallons is not nearly as great as that between liters and either sort of gallons.
By the time a tank is decorated with gravel or sand, rocks and ceramic castles, there is less volume (no matter which units you are using) so the difference in gallons almost becomes irrelevant.

The Imperial gallon is about 20% bigger than the American gallon.
There are very close to 4 liters in either sort of gallon.
The American gallon is a bit smaller than 4 liters, the Imperial gallon is bigger than 4 liters.

In this thread, I think the important number is the ratio between turnover and tank size, not what the units are measured in.
I start with 5 times the tank volume, just to size the filter(s) for a canister, or 10 times for an HOB, then add more water movement. A 45 gallon (American) tank gets a filter capable of not less than 200 gph. (actually I am running some filters capable of 230 gph, empty)
Then I add something else. In one case it is another filter, capable of another 500 gph. In other tanks I have a powerhead that is around 300 gph.
I just added bubblers to all the tanks. This adds very little to the water movement, but it does seem to help keep the tanks cooler in the summer.

[connor]

I am sorry fot this off topic question.

Since I am from Slovenia, and we dont have gallons, only liters, but I do know that there is a big difference betweeen gallons (UK ) and gallons liquid ( US ).

So connor have 80 US gallons tank, but in UK gallons, he have only 66 gallons tank? Am I getting this right?

And when article about clown loaches states minimum 75 gallons, is it refering to UK or US gallons?

Again, sorry for this off topic post connor

Hey,

no offence taken.

1 gallon = 3.785411784 liter
1 British gallon = 4.5460902819948 litre

1 liter = 0.264172052358148 gallon
1 litre = 0.219969234654356 British gallon

Since this forum is hosted in the USA I guess we are talking US gallons, too. Metrics .

-Connor

[LoachOrgy]

I am about to setup a 120 gallon with two rena xp3's an aquaclear 70 and two 50 aquaclear jetheads attached to a river manifold design.

[crazy loaches]

Hey,

no offence taken.

1 gallon = 3.785411784 liter
1 British gallon = 4.5460902819948 litre

1 liter = 0.264172052358148 gallon
1 litre = 0.219969234654356 British gallon

Since this forum is hosted in the USA I guess we are talking US gallons, too. Metrics .

-Connor

Another handy way to do math and unit conversion is google. Right on the search bar it will do various math and scientific functions as well as convert units. The only trick is to figure out the format to enter in but its fairly smart and will figure out what you want to do.

For example convert between gallons and liters. Type into google: "55 gallons in liters". "in" is what tells google you want the answer expressed in another unit. See here.

Or something more complex: Like say you want to fill your 120g tank 2" deep with substarte sold in liters. Type in "48 * 24 * 2 cubic inches in liters" (this wont work for gravel sold in pounds of course).

Just some of the ever increasing features of google.

BTW it will recognize imperial gallons by typing UK in front of gallons like "UK gallons".

[Ded1]

Or... http://www.digitaldutch.com/unitconverter/

[shari2]

or: http://www.sciencemadesimple.net/volume.php
simple for the simple minded.