Ok folks, here are some short videos of the river tank in motion. Although the new tetras have adjusted to the tank, the loaches have not, atleast not during the day. The tank still needs some tweeking and final decoration.
Great stuff! The tank looks really cool and the fish are obviously enjoying themselves. If I were you, I'd add a blue moon light tube to the tank so that you can view the loaches better in the semi-darkness.
Here is the main attraction at the moment. These two species absolutely loves the current it seems. They head over there from the calm section of the tank in about 15-20 minutes after the lights come on and the loaches go in their caves. Then throughout the day, they do the surfing thing back and forth. Kinda reminds me of the day I went sledding.
Although its hard to tell with a photo, these guys were dancing in the current when I took this pic.
120 gallon planted aquaponic tank with 10 clown loachs, first one since 1994, 1 modesta and 3 striadas.
Advantages of tank
The tank is a high flow 1550 Gallons Per Hour through the system.
Although the flow amount is high is not turbulent and both sections of tank turn over water at high rate. The back (~22 gallons) turns over 70 times an hour and the front (~65gallons) turns over about 23 times an hour.
Filtration is great; a large amount of water passes over the bio media per hour. Also, the water is much clearer, with little or no debris, substantially less than my 120 with the wet/dry setup
Most fish absolutely loves and enjoys the current.
The separation of the tank into two parts seems to give the fish more personal space and great boundaries, especially useful for territorial loaches.
Disadvantages as of now:
Visible filtration is unsightly.
Part of the tank is used for filtration
Too much of the tank is occupied by air. Good for wider variety of plants but less swimming space.
Adjustments to be done:
Raising the level of water by about an inch. Although the pumps will still push 1550 GPH, the flow of the tank water and the amount of times the tank water turns over in an hour will be reduced.
Covering up the filter section with a dark acrylic.
Although filtration takes up tank space, it will remain. The main reason is due to the fact that a lot of water (mostly all) passes through the filters and the whole system is contained in the tank. So far, the fish have no complaints.
I feel very satisfied with the results of the project and I am already thinking of my next tank design to allow the same or higher flow with longer distance between pump intake and exit. At the moment it is almost 10 feet.
1550 Gallons Per Hour sounds like a lot and it sounds turbulent but I have found out that it isn’t. After this experiment, I honestly think that the smallest stream flows over 5000 GPH. With my river tank, a pre-filter sponge is used to buffer the turbulent flow of the pumps so there are no jets of water at high pressure pushing through the tank water. The fall is about 2.5 inches deep and little over 3.5 inches wide (eyeballed). If I raise the tank water level above the line where the water falls through, there is more space for the fish to swim/jump through. All the fish, except the male Megalamphodus megalopterus (Black phantom tetras) really appreciate the flow of current through the whole tank. He makes few attempts to go the fall occasionally, hangs out there for about 3-5 seconds but then gets washed towards the right quarter of the tank towards the intake where it is calmer. All the other tetras from the time the lights comes on and the loaches go into their caves do the surfing thing, back and forth. Reminds me of the sledding I did recently.
120 gallon planted aquaponic tank with 10 clown loachs, first one since 1994, 1 modesta and 3 striadas.
That's rather good. I'm kind of amazed that the flow isn't more turbulent given the difference in water levels between the two sections. Great to see yet more loach innovation here!
If I lower the water level, so that the water falls instead of flow over from the rear section it gets much more turbulent. The the lower the water has to fall, the more turbulent it gets. I might try it one day.
120 gallon planted aquaponic tank with 10 clown loachs, first one since 1994, 1 modesta and 3 striadas.
That would be real nice if I could do it. Unfortunately, the center piece of this tank, would not be able to hold the pressure of that much water built up on one side.
120 gallon planted aquaponic tank with 10 clown loachs, first one since 1994, 1 modesta and 3 striadas.
At the moment it will not be able to hold that much pressure. I initially planed the tank for the flow of water and not a fall so I used 1/8" thick acrylic that is 5 feet long. At that length it is real flimzy. Think of a concrete dam, the higher the water is in the dam the more force the concrete has on it. If the water in the dam was only 1 inch higher then there would not be any need for major concrete. In my tank, every inch in height on rear side means a guestimate difference of about 2 gallon of water . One gallon is about 8 lbs. Four inches would equate to 64 lbs of force total and the ends would not hold this. Prolly 2.5 inches difference between the rear dam water level to the lower section is tops.
120 gallon planted aquaponic tank with 10 clown loachs, first one since 1994, 1 modesta and 3 striadas.
JK
