River tank project

[turtleguy146]

Hello everyone,
This is my first post here, so I will tell you a little about my situation first. Several months ago I saw three bizarre little fish (I now know they are some kind of hillstream loach) in a local pet store and decided to get them. I must have given them a great deal of relief since they were in a bare little display with very little water flow or algae. I put them in my largest tank at the time, a heavily planted 20 gallon long.
After some research I realized neither of my two tanks (the 20 and a 5.5 that I use to hatch corydoras) were suitable habitats, although the tank they were in had a year's worth of barely nibbled on algae, so they were at least well fed, because they were relatively still.
As a temporary fix i positioned a 150 gph filter so that the return was pretty turbulent and fell on several large quartz rocks. This annoyed some of the inhabitants, but the hillstreams liked it, because they immediately gathered under the flow and remain there or in several abandoned stiphodon caves nearby.
A couple days ago I found a great deal on a 44 gallon breeder tank (37x18x16) and purchased it with the intention of making a river tank very like the one concept one show here. http://www.loaches.com/articles/a-river-runs-through-it .
For the current I have two Maxi-Jet 1200s (295 gph each) and an an Eheim canister filter (116 gph) positioned so that the intakes are at one end and the returns at another.
Today I glued all the piping together and filled the tank to test it out. I am a little concerned because the current hits the return end of the tank and circles back a little more than I had expected it too.
Is this alright or should I try and make the flow more unidirectional? I have also thought it might be better if i positioned the plumbing so that i purposefully created a strong, circular current. Maybe even create some sort of divider in the middle.
This is my first attempt at any kind of river tank or keeping Hillstreams and I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks, Gabriel.

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Hello Gabriel,

Your loaches will enjoy the maximum flow you can provide them. In my rivertank I have 3x2,000 Liter/hour powerheads and I can assure you they would apreciate more flow.
About the direction of the flow, the idea is to simulate a river. So, it should be unidirectional.

This is my rivertank manifold. Take a look. Maybe it can inspire yourself in something you might have missed:

My rivertank manifold

Good luck and welcome to LOL.

[turtleguy146]

Thank you!
My setup looks very like a miniature of yours with one less powerhead. We actually have pretty similar flow to volume ratios too. 6000 / 450 = 13.33.
595 / 40 = 14.75. Do your intakes at the far end of the tank draw enough to keep the current from flowing back?

[Jim Powers]

You will probably always have some back flow at the end of the tank, regardless. Streams are full of eddies and current breaks so your fish will not be bothered as long as they have the strong flow.
What kind of hillstreams do you have?

[turtleguy146]

I believe they are Beaufortia kweichowensis. One of them is slightly darker than the other two and his nose is a little more pointed. I think he may just be from different parents though. Hopefully I will be able to get some pics soon.
I know it would be impossible to completely eliminate the back flow with such a simple setup, it just seemed strong. I guess it is still uniform though, there are just three currents instead of one. The one running from the powerheads breaks at the end and flows up the sides to about the middle of the tank before it dissipates. I dropped little bits of paper napkin into the tank to see how the water was flowing for about thirty minutes last night haha. It shouldn't be as strong when it hits the end once the tank has substrate and decorations too.
I think it is ready for its final resting place. I just need a flow bar for the filter return and another air pump. Unfortunately the water pressure is too high when the tank is full for the venturi fed aerators to work on their own, so i am going to attach the hoses directly to a small pump.

[Martin Thoene]

Hi turtleguy146 and welcome to LOL. You're experiencing all the typical shortcomings of setting up powerful pumps in a relatively short tank. No problem though, as Jim states. Sounds like your setup is great.

Martin.