# Water movement in YOUR African tank



## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Hey all you African keepers 

Last night I switched around a powerhead in my setup. It created a lot more water movement which seemed to cause a reaction with my fish. They were all acting different. Its hard to explain. Lots of them were swimming in a group. The watermovement also caused a bunch to just swim in the current. So this had me wondering. 

How much current do African's like? Does lake Malawi have a fast current? Do they like very little or a lot? Has anyone experimented with this? How much water are you moving?

Here's what I have 

120g tank

Fx5 double outlets
Rena Xp3 
marineland HOB
Maxijet 1200 powerhead. I switched this over to the turbine style and it moves way more water. This is where the change occurred. 

Let me know what you think or have tried.


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

This is something I wondered too but never really found much info on, I am curious to know how much water movement they like or need. Here's what I got 85 gal with fx5 and its two headed outlet with a hydor 750 gph all facing same way kinda, I have filter outlets up to ripple the top and the hydor down slightly to move water around the stones. That being said I'm stacked with granite and there aren't to many slow spots for debris to collect. I also don't know how many gph you lose by putting media in the filter I'm sure factory flow numbers are with empty canisters. So I couldn't even guess my gph of water flow to estimate a small, medium or big current or what there is in the lake to compare. I think regardless of what the fish may like or do in a wild environment, what ever you provide for it the fish will find a spot similar or atleast one it likes


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Vancitycam said:


> This is something I wondered too but never really found much info on, I am curious to know how much water movement they like or need. Here's what I got 85 gal with fx5 and its two headed outlet with a hydor 750 gph all facing same way kinda, I have filter outlets up to ripple the top and the hydor down slightly to move water around the stones. That being said I'm stacked with granite and there aren't to many slow spots for debris to collect. I also don't know how many gph you lose by putting media in the filter I'm sure factory flow numbers are with empty canisters. So I couldn't even guess my gph of water flow to estimate a small, medium or big current or what there is in the lake to compare. I think regardless of what the fish may like or do in a wild environment, what ever you provide for it the fish will find a spot similar or atleast one it likes


I agree Cam. I have no idea of how much water Im moving in gph. I will try to calculate it based on factory numbers. Even than. Whats ideal?

I should of taken a video of how they were acting. I ended up un plugging the powerhead for now. It was late last night and I didn't want to wake up to dead fish. I will plug it in again after work and watch how they act again. It was creating a lot of movement. I think I prefer more movement but its the fish I worry about. My plants look wicked blowing all over the place.


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## mikebike (Sep 8, 2010)

I have some yellow labs that decided that they can live/thrive/ and reproduce in my comunity 90 gallon with 30+ cories, 10 or more Plecos 30+ Tetras and guppies.

I have one of the uv cansiter filters for a 200 gaollon tank the retun jet towards the right end It is 12 inches from the end.
The jets from it will send things to the right and wrap around the right end and flow more gently along the back wall towads the filter pick up tube.

I also have a power head jeting along from the left front corner to the right end wall

I find a lot of the fish stay just off the side of the jet currents waiting for something to drift by.

The cories and tetras seem to like the flow







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this is a shot of the tank 90g center


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

Here's an interesting read and maybe someone smarter than me can get info from it I breezed through but it was almost all Greek to me.

http://www.aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_19/issue_5/0730.pdf

Basically I would figure there's a medium current in the majority of the lake just due to the amount of river that flow into it and with the different temps of water mixing. Just a guess


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

I've been watching a lot of Youtube videos on African tanks lately. This is why I'm wondering. The African's in my tank seem to hover in their territory / area most of the time rather than be swimming all over as I see in most peoples tanks. Maybe Im just being picky but If I can make the fish a little happier. The happier Ill be 

Ill read the thing you posted Cam. Thanks


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## mikebike (Sep 8, 2010)

a good trick with Africans is to move the landscape around periodicaly.
This helps with the agression and teritory fights, they all have to be re established after re aranging things.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

mikebike said:


> a good trick with Africans is to move the landscape around periodicaly.
> This helps with the agression and teritory fights, they all have to be re established after re aranging things.


I agree, except when you have a planted African tank that's not really possible so Im thinking outside the box   I still think 1 of my issues it my tank is 4ft but a 6ft tank isn't going to happen for at least another year.


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

Yeah I found that taking away all territories works too in reducing aggression. Having lots of fish in the tank tends to work with that kind of setup. 

Sent from my gigantic Samsung Note 2


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## Vman (Jan 20, 2011)

I have a 135 gallon with 
FX 5
XP 3
1 maxi jet 1200
3 Hydor Koralia 1400 
I don't like dead spots and found that this worked for my tank. 
The Maxi is for surface agitation and Koralias for flow. Works great for my fish.The Trophs do the current all day and Calvus and Comps stay out of it.


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

90 gal 4 foot tank - 2x 1400 gph koralias, 1x ac 70 (300 gph), 1x xp4 (450gph) --> 3550 gph in a 4 foot tank. Some of my fish love it, some don't.. but I have enough rocks (and spots under rocks) where there is a big mix of high flow, medium flow, and low flow.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Steve said:


> 90 gal 4 foot tank - 2x 1400 gph koralias, 1x ac 70 (300 gph), 1x xp4 (450gph) --> 3550 gph in a 4 foot tank. Some of my fish love it, some don't.. but I have enough rocks (and spots under rocks) where there is a big mix of high flow, medium flow, and low flow.


I must be close to the same water movement as you. So I'm probably okay.

Im still testing the water movement out but from what I've seen it has changed some things in my tank. I haven't had a lot of time to sit back and watch how my fish are acting but I can say most of the fish were hanging out in new areas when the lights came on this morning. This is great news for me because most of the ways to curb African aggression aren't possible with a planted African tank. Im also limited on where the water flows because of where my plants are planted. Its still to early to tell but I'm hoping that changing the current direction or upping/downing the flow rate might be another way to stir things up in the tank literally  I will hopefully be home earlier tonight to observe them a little more. The fun of keeping Africans


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Vman said:


> I have a 135 gallon with
> FX 5
> XP 3
> 1 maxi jet 1200
> ...


Thanks. So you have a more than me but your tank is a little bigger. I might not of had enough flow before I switched the powerhead.

This is an interesting topic. Thanks everyone for the input. If any others want to comment feel free. Im curious to see what most people have.

High flow or medium flow?


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

Maybe this should be a poll? Just have a few size ranges and flow ranges low med high with some gph numbers


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Vancitycam said:


> Maybe this should be a poll? Just have a few size ranges and flow ranges low med high with some gph numbers


2 minds think a like Cam  I think it would be better to post it in the freshwater section though. Seems to be more traffic in that section.

Ill see what I can come up with unless you are volunteering to start the poll


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

I just keep Tanganyikan Africans - the deeper water fish prefers less current, the tidal surf fish prefers highly oxygenated waters, so lots of flow. For my shellies, julies and comps, just a couple of sponge filters. Gobies and tropheus has a 900gph canister, 500gph hob, 3 x 1600gph power heads on a 6 foot tank.


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## smccleme (Aug 20, 2012)

I found the maxi-jet 1200 in 'circulation' mode to be too strong in my 6ft tank. It is a very focused jet of water. My cichlids won't swim in front of it, and generally avoid the strong current. The similarly rated hydors don't have as narrow of a jet stream, and the cichlids will play in it more. I prefer the maxi in powerhead mode, even if that means having two of them instead of one. One nice thing about the maxi's in powerhead mode is that you can easily rotate them a couple of degrees, and tilt the outflow nozzle up or down. I adjust it once a week to hit new areas and change up the flow. 

I also added some poret foam to the intake to add filtration. If you're moving the water around with a power head, you may as well filter it at the same time. I squeeze out the foam blocks every few weeks.

A tip on cutting foam to make it fit over the intake that I found online; wet it first, and freeze it. You can then drill a perfect hole while it's frozen.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

smccleme said:


> I found the maxi-jet 1200 in 'circulation' mode to be too strong in my 6ft tank. It is a very focused jet of water. My cichlids won't swim in front of it, and generally avoid the strong current. The similarly rated hydors don't have as narrow of a jet stream, and the cichlids will play in it more. I prefer the maxi in powerhead mode, even if that means having two of them instead of one. One nice thing about the maxi's in powerhead mode is that you can easily rotate them a couple of degrees, and tilt the outflow nozzle up or down. I adjust it once a week to hit new areas and change up the flow.
> 
> I also added some poret foam to the intake to add filtration. If you're moving the water around with a power head, you may as well filter it at the same time. I squeeze out the foam blocks every few weeks.
> 
> A tip on cutting foam to make it fit over the intake that I found online; wet it first, and freeze it. You can then drill a perfect hole while it's frozen.


Thanks for the input. That's a great trick for cutting the hole in the middle of the sponge. I agree the maxi 1200 in circulation mode is too much flow. Im blocking some of the flow with the outtake of the fx5. I think after xmas I will go buy a hydor. The thing that drives me nuts on the maxi setup in circulation mode is it makes way too much noise if a piece of plant is stuck in the cover. The gaps are too big although that's probably why it has lots of flow. I was running the maxi in powerhead mode for around 6 months and I don't find its enough flow. I have a big fluval powerhead but its more of a Jetstream. I might try to Mcgiver something for the mean time.


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

If you are using an old maxi jet 1200 they actually make a foam prefilter I fit those maxi jets. Actually polishes the water quite nicely and even better if you use a block of poret. 

Sent from my gigantic Samsung Note 2


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

tony1928 said:


> If you are using an old maxi jet 1200 they actually make a foam prefilter I fit those maxi jets. Actually polishes the water quite nicely and even better if you use a block of poret.
> 
> Sent from my gigantic Samsung Note 2


I never really thought to use my powerhead as polisher. Someone else mentioned that. If I switch back to a powerhead Ill add block of foam or find the one for it. Thanks


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## mikebike (Sep 8, 2010)

Here are some fish swimming in the current in my 90 gallon comunity tank:







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from a distance







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the yellow labs realy seem to like the current







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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

jbyoung00008 said:


> I never really thought to use my powerhead as polisher. Someone else mentioned that. If I switch back to a powerhead Ill add block of foam or find the one for it. Thanks


No problem. I found it was easy to clean and clean frequently. The Poret foam is great as its indestructible and can be purchased at various densities and is awesome at polishing water. The maxijet pushes a lot of water and is cheap.


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## AKAmikeross (Nov 5, 2012)

I always use 1 or 2 power heads on either side of the tank to keep debris stirred up and moving towards my filter intakes. I have always used a sand substrate... that pair up with good water movement allows me to never have to clean my substrate. Just stir it up once and awhile to release any trapped gasses. 

The excess water movement was never for the fish lol, more so for my hate of substrate cleaning/laziness. I hate cleaning tanks/filter but love doing water changes, go figure.


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