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