so i finally ordered my archer fish and i am waiting for their soon arrival. but it has lead me to consider if i have to much water flow in my tank. its an 80g tank, currently i am running an over the back filter (500gph) and a canister filter (320gph). i also have a power head running (600gph). as far as i can tell the mollies like but im not to sure about the knight gobies. so my question is, is this to much flow for my tank? will the archer fish like all the water flow or would it be best if i remove the power head? also i recently added a small protein skimmer to see if it would work. so far it is. any advice or ideas will be greatly appreciated.
how much water flow is needed
- Thread starter robert.mccook.elm
- Start date
I will try to give some general guidance, but the main idea behind what I will say is that you will have to see what workds for you. It also depends on the amount of "water flow buffers" you have (ie., rocks, caves, decor). A basic overview of the brackish setup and potential problems. Water at SG 1.000 is relatively easy to oxygenate. The denser the water, the more difficult it is to keep aerated. Thus turning water, aerating and water changes augment this for aquarists. I believe that in an earlier post, you said that your water measured SG 1.012, which is a mid range salinity brackish setup. Thus , I would turn my water at a rate of 1.5 to 2 times more than required for freshwater, imo. So, general commercial recommendations, a freshwater tank should be turned full volume 4 times an hour. But in a brackish, it is generally recommended to turn your full volume 6 to 8 times an hour. Your canister and HOB filter meet this. I believe your archers will appreciate the current by the powerhead. It will help push water over their gills for oxygen exchange and it will help prevent salinity columns from forming. Imo, I would put the canister filter spray bar and power head on the same side of the tank. Inversly, I would put the canister filter intake on the other side of the tank. Finally, I would put the HOB filter in the area of a poor flow area to keep it all moving. The mollies are pretty tough, cockroaches of saline water world. You will have to adjust your powerhead mostly to get the desired flow, but I would keep it higher in the tank to help keep the stronger currents at the archers' level. Give your gobies caves and some slate surfaces to how they react with flows. Let us know how you set up your currents & caves. Likewise, report on the gobies actions one situated.
so i recently removed the 600gph power head because the knight gobies did not like it. they were hiding in the rocks all day and they became very aggressive. as soon as i turned of the power head they calmed down and stopped being so aggressive. i recently put in a 300gph power head instead, and so far they are all happy. i also hooked up a protein skimmer with a 1000gph pump. this skimmer has been working great. i have the spray bar and the power head on the same side, with the HOB filter on the opposite side. the skimmer is in the middle. i dump the gunk out of my skimmer every 4 days or so, and so far all seems well. i decided to also remove the larger power head because archers, from what i've read, typically are mangrove swamp fish and don't have strong currents. let me know what you guys think.
How large are your archers? I know you have that larger tank awaiting, so if the archers get slightly larger than recommended for the 80gal. tank you may consider a greater current only until you get that mammoth tank done 
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Changing powerheads sounds like it worked out for you. Now if could find a powerhead that big for my cichlids ........lol.
So tell us about you salinity and your skimmer. I am very interested to know about this. Many people have posted before on this subject and the most was negative, but I've been yearning to try this.
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.Changing powerheads sounds like it worked out for you. Now if could find a powerhead that big for my cichlids ........lol.
So tell us about you salinity and your skimmer. I am very interested to know about this. Many people have posted before on this subject and the most was negative, but I've been yearning to try this.
Sent from my C771 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
well i am getting the archers today and i was told that they will be 2inches. once they get bigger i will under go the task of swapping tanks. once in the bigger tank i will deffinatly use the stronger power heads. luckily i live close to my parents and my dad has a 750gal reef tank, so i get all of his surplus. thats why i have 4 600gph power heads. he has stuff that he has gathered over the last 25years.
to be honest im surpirsed that they gobies did not like the power heads. from what i read they are suppose to be estuary fish, where there is a current, but my fiddler crabs like it.
as for the skimmer, it started to work within the first hour. I've adjusted how much airflow it gets and i have finally dialed it in to where it does the best. my SG is still 1.012. and it did take me the course of a few days to get it dialed in just perfect. but ever since i put it in they water has stayed clearer for longer. usually by the time i do my weekly water change the water looks a little dirty but when i did it yesterday it still looked super clear, so the skimmer must be doing something. also those copepods that i put in are still alive, i say some movement late last night in the tank, not a lot of them but a few. so who knows maybe they will populate. what questions do you have about the skimmer? i'll try and answer them.
to be honest im surpirsed that they gobies did not like the power heads. from what i read they are suppose to be estuary fish, where there is a current, but my fiddler crabs like it.
as for the skimmer, it started to work within the first hour. I've adjusted how much airflow it gets and i have finally dialed it in to where it does the best. my SG is still 1.012. and it did take me the course of a few days to get it dialed in just perfect. but ever since i put it in they water has stayed clearer for longer. usually by the time i do my weekly water change the water looks a little dirty but when i did it yesterday it still looked super clear, so the skimmer must be doing something. also those copepods that i put in are still alive, i say some movement late last night in the tank, not a lot of them but a few. so who knows maybe they will populate. what questions do you have about the skimmer? i'll try and answer them.