Problem with Turbulence

[Willie]

I keep reading posts about how discus do not like turbulence. Hopefully, we can put this notion to rest with this picture.

Most all my larger tanks, 55's, 58's & 75's, have powerheads blasting away. The tank below this one has two powerheads on opposite ends of the tank. As my power filters die, they'll be replaced with powerhead driven sponge filters. They work just as well with 2" discus.

If your discus is having trouble with the turbulence, its probably because that's a sick fish.

Willie

[gary1218]

Hey Willie,

We talked about this a little while back when I was first thinking about doing the same - a power head attached to the uplift tube of a Hydro IV sponge filter.

I have them up and running on two 30 gallon tanks. I placed the power head close to the surface so that I could run an air line to the water output of the power head and get a lot of aeration going as well. It's been working GREAT.

With the finer hydro sponges the water is CRYSTAL clear. There is a lot of agitation at the water surface. With the addtional water flow I don't need to vacuum the bottoms of the tanks. Now I just vacuum the sponge a little to remove any bigger trapped particles.

What size power heads are you using on your 55 gallon tanks - what is the gph? I'm planning on using the same set up on my new garage set up where the tanks are 56 gallon column tanks.

GARY

I agree 100% Willie. Even when I do provide a "quieter" area in the tank....I most often find them swimming in the current. This applies to younger and older discus....as long as they're healthy, they love it!
Tony

[BlueTurquoise]

Yeah, I agree! I have alot of water movement in the tank (more so than just a standstill) and they don't seem to mind. In fact like Tony says they seem to enjoy it!

However there are parts of the tank that are "still" water and the flow rate is not extreme, just a gentle flow.

[barron]

I agree Willie I was turning tank over to polish it at 12x plus 5x for the filter and they loved it. I let it run longer then I wanted. For now I will cont. to do this. ;D

Barron

[Willie]

Gary;

I have all sorts of powerheads sitting around. When I buy new ones, its usually something cheap like Aquaclear 310. Two of those does a great job in a 75 gallon tank.

Willie

[Todd77357]

I have never tried power heads on any of my tanks, but maybe I will try it on my tanks without co2 1 day. I do however try to over filter my tanks, I have a Pen 330 and an Emp. 400 pumping 730 gph in my 55 g, the fish do seem to enjoy it a lot.