Stream(ish) project

[hx]

Will the powerhead and the eheim combined I will get more than enough circulation for the Sewellia's, but not sure if it will be too much for the Mattenfilter, after translating the german site and figuring out the math they use to figure the sizes of mattenfilters, I will need one that is 18inches tall by 19 inches wide to support just the flow of the powerhead, should I make it even bigger than 19 inches wide even though the Eheim intake will not be behind the mattenfilter? I still have to get my hands on the Sponge filter material, my local fish store does not carry it

Yes, the flow through the matt at optimal biofiltering is quite slow.
Just remember that you can use it at any form. Zig-zag or l_l l_l or box (surface all around) or whatever you come up with.

If your local stores don't carry it, order from any of the Euro netstores...

[Barnsten]

I found a store online that seems to sell good sponge that is bendable. I have thinner sponge on hand but figured it needs to be thicker than 1/2 an inch. I could get another piece of thin sponge (maybe 1 inch or more, depending on what I can find in town) and then glue it to the other piece of sponge filter that I already have.

[Barnsten]

Sorry link for store is this:
http://www.lagunakoi.com/subcat139.html

[hx]

That looks like the foam you want. Price is not bad either.
The usual thicknesses used in Europe are 30 mm (1 1/5'') and 50 mm (2'').

[Barnsten]

Well my wild caught Sewellia Lineolata's arrived yesterday and have acclimated wonderfully. They are fascinating to watch, and quick little guys! I can't wait to finish my project and get the tank established so I have a stream like environment to enjoy them in.
They hide off and on throughout the day, coming out every few minutes. Their little scuffles over territory are cute to watch as well. I can't wait to get a few other varieties.
I wish I had access to more of the other species, but up here in Alaska we don't get special fish at our local fish store, I ordered these ones off of a buyer on the internet and had them shipped here.

[LES..]

That is a stunning tank you have there hx, I love those tunze pumps, so much flow for the wattage. Mine still warm the water more than I would like in my tank. Like you i don't rely on the big sponge barrier for filtration (i have an additional canister filter for that) which makes cleaning it very easy, it's a 30 second job to switch sponges on my tank which i do about once a month (or when i start noticing a drop in the water level behind the sponge). The old sponge then gets a going over with a pressure washer in the garden (-: and it is ready to be used again.

My tank is only 120cm long and i just wish i had the space to double the length, i suspect that if i did i would seriously look into upping the flow some more, probably with external pumps, while the tunze pumps do shift vast amounts of water i find the diffuse output doesn't create enough concentrated fast spots for the loaches to play in and they still tend to crown around the outflow.

LES..

[LES..]

Well here's the "underneath" concept. You could of course have the water transfer chamber along the back behind a false wall rather than underneath. I don't know that cleaning is such an issue. I've never cleaned out a River-Tank manifold....ever. All the internal surfaces provide areas for beneficial bacterial growth.



Martin.

It looks like a sound design Martin but you will need vast quantities of flow to make it work. The great strength of your original manifold design is that it provides for plenty of concentrated high speed zones while maintaining a generally uni-directional flow. You run the risk of losing the high flow zones if you make the outflow end completely open. I would think that a blanking plate with 2-4cm high slot set just above the substrate will give you a nice fast flow zone with a moderate number of pumps that the hillies will love.

This was the downfall of my original plan for my tank, once i realized this i did some back of the envelope calculations came to the conclusion i needed another 8 pumps to give the effect i was originally after, not something i could afford to do.

[hx]

That is a stunning tank you have there hx, I love those tunze pumps, so much flow for the wattage. Mine still warm the water more than I would like in my tank. Like you i don't rely on the big sponge barrier for filtration (i have an additional canister filter for that) which makes cleaning it very easy, it's a 30 second job to switch sponges on my tank which i do about once a month (or when i start noticing a drop in the water level behind the sponge). The old sponge then gets a going over with a pressure washer in the garden (-: and it is ready to be used again.

My tank is only 120cm long and i just wish i had the space to double the length, i suspect that if i did i would seriously look into upping the flow some more, probably with external pumps, while the tunze pumps do shift vast amounts of water i find the diffuse output doesn't create enough concentrated fast spots for the loaches to play in and they still tend to crown around the outflow.

LES..

Thanks, LES..

Yeah I'm not a big fan of canister filters, so I run a sump in addition to the foams inside the tank. In the stand of the tank there are four 65 liter (≈16 gal) tanks, I made one a very simple sump. Water goes through an overflow and is directed into the buckets first. Buckets are full of foam clippings and the wall is a foam too:



The idea is to actually keep the flow quite slow, so there is just a 600 l/h pump.
I might convert the sump into a genuine wet/dry later, if I get the energy...

I don't know if it really proves anything of the need for more concentrated flow, but in my stream hillstream loaches very rarely go near the outputs of the Tunze, i.e. the fastest flowing spots of the tank. I have a couple of Rineloricaria that sometimes hang on Vallisnerias close to the outputs.

Sounds like you have a nice tank, any pics anywhere?

[Barnsten]

I don't have a stream tank set up for my loaches yet, I run 2 canister filters and some HOB's on my 125 gallon tank, all together it cycles the tank water over 10 times and hour. I'm still working on my project in the 55 gallon to eventually make it a stream tank for my Sewellia Lineolata's.
I also have a 4 foot long bubble wand and a bubbling decoration (I like bubbles, LOL). My Sewellia's are quite active all day and into the night, they have little battles over spots in the tank that they like best. But mine never hang out near any of the outputs or where the flow is the highest, they go all over my tank.

[hx]

But mine never hang out near any of the outputs or where the flow is the highest, they go all over my tank.

I know the feeling. It's almost disappointing to not see them going into the fastest flow, isn't it?
Even my glass cats go there more than Sewellias or Gastromyzons...

[plaalye]

That's interesting, my sewellias and gastromyzon fight for position on the rock directly in front of the outflow of the aqauclear 70 in my rivertank.
LOVE your tank hx!

[hx]

Thanks.
Now that is interesting. I've gotten lazyass hillstreams.

So could temperature and/or oxygen content make a difference to the behaviour?
Mine are at 21-22° C and a lot of surface flow... one might think that they don't want any more of what flow usually brings on?
Or is it just an individual thing?

On a side note: not being very good at camerawork sometimes turns out to be a blessing

At least I kinda like the spooky Kryptopterus minors.

[LES..]

Emma linked to my post on setting up my tank earlier in this thread.

This is an old picture:


It is currently a mess of algae and valis which i must clean out before taking any more pictures. My excuse for not doing so is a spawning a few weeks back and i am paranoid about squishing the fry that like to hide in the weed. My cheni love the high flow areas, all the big alpha loaches bully the others away from the stones right in front of the outflows.

[hx]

Aaaargh, my bad, didn't make the connection...
Truly nice tank. I especially like your approach to the technical side of it.

[Barnsten]

Out of curiosity are your guys' hillstream loaches wild caught or tank bred?
All six of mine are youngsters (sewellia lineolata's), the biggest is possibly 2 inches at most and that would include his tail fin, the smallest one is about an 1 1/2 inches. Mine were all wild caught and imported from Vietnam.
My tank is running at 77-78 degrees (Around 25 Celsius). I know it's on the warmer side but it doesn't seem to be bothering them at all, but there is a lot of water flow and bubbles in my tank too.
Not sure if temps will have anything to do with how much they will play in the water flow or not.
Oh and I love the picture of the glass cats, very neat how they're almost purple, wonder how that happened I miss my glass cats, but they're too expensive at my fish store. I want to get more of them some day though.