Clown loach substrate?

[esoxlucius]

Yes ive noticed mine dipping and dodging in the stream of my powerhead as well.

Is your drain on the right side of your tank then? My current decision is to either drill and sump the tank with overflow on the right side panel and returns on left side panel. Or leaving it undrilled, using air powered sponges on the right and powerheads on the left

Yeah, my drains on the right. I have a bare bottom tank so all the crud gets slowly blown to that end and sucked up. I have some rocks and wood on the bottom and just recently i've started introducing a lot of potted plants too, I thought it was about time I had some greenery in the tank. Problem now is that the bottom is becoming a bit cluttered and it's not as easy for waste to scoot along the bottom to get sucked up. I'm having to vacuum in the odd nook and cranny where dead spots are starting to form. To alleviate this problem I might just get a more powerful powerhead.

 

[Uglyknob]

I don't think Clowns are too particular. I have the return in the center of the tank and it splits to both ends. They play in either current and go to the middle to rest. Although, they are all over the place all the time. The only fish more active are the Dojos, which are wrecking balls of activity all day.

 

[Andyroo]

Hey loachkeepers another quick question for youse:

Its well known that CL like lots of flow. But should i be trying to create a laminar, one direction flow or a random sort of turbulence like in a reef tank? Im setting up these loaches new tank and wondering where or if i should drill, use of powerheads, etc...

Hi Backfromthedead,
re. strong mono-directional flow: check the largely defunct Loaches Online forum - they've got a bunch of river tank designs sketched-out that might fit, running a series of pipes/power-heads under the gravel with a to blowing recurve at one end and sucking up-pipe from the other rather than drilling. With these modern Cobalt (type) inline pumps, this may be a whole lot easier than it was. Note: these were for river, lizard & butterfly loaches & gobies, and might be too much for a Botia type long-term unless you put specific effort into eddies & hides and vary the flow through the day/week, maybe, like afternoon rain might produce. IME they do appreciate the flow, though, and will "surf" the high flow for hours - so send video