Water Circulation - POST YOUR THEORIES PLEASE

[duanes]

JDs do not come from areas where "waves" are a normal part of the biotope, and do come from areas where flow may only be considered moderate.
Some JD habitat. 1st above the water


now, a video from below water, where water flows upward from underground
Eden2

 

[duanes]

JDs also do not often do well, housed with other cichlids, compare the ones in this video, where other cichlids are present and the one in the previous video where JDs dominate.
In this video they are much more torn up, and the population is rather small.
027 zps4b102ffd

 

[skjl47]

The power head/wave maker is causing the fish to have to constantly swim hard to stay in place.

Hello; Never used one of the wave pumps so cannot say from experience. Could the wave pump be on a timer so that it only runs part of the time? Not clear to me what the point of waves in a fresh water aquarium might be. I know lakes can have periods of surface waves when the wind is up and there is sufficient reach. I do not think this is a constant thing.

I sort of gathered from the initial post the concern was to move the detritus along? If so perhaps something else needs to be mentioned. That being, in my experience, I still have to use a siphon to get into the substrate even if I manage to get flow arranged to move most stuff into a filter pickup.
Those siphons with a big tube necking down to a small tube pretty much always find some detritus in the gravel. This is even when the filter is getting most of it.
If not having to do the tedious hand siphon of a substrate is a goal, then good luck. May still need to hand siphon from time to time. I tend to do a different section each week during WC and always get stuff.

My Cichlid seems to be breathing heavy as well. Will it take

Hello; Two things come to mind. One is low O2 levels in the water. This is where surface agitation seems to help. Can be done with power units but I prefer air bubbles.

Another is the struggle in the waves takes a lot of energy. We run we breathe heavy. Fish swim hard they do the same??

 

[GoldFinger]

JDs do not come from areas where "waves" are a normal part of the biotope, and do come from areas where flow may only be considered moderate.
Some JD habitat. 1st above the water


now, a video from below water, where water flows upward from underground
Eden2

Awesome video

 

[GoldFinger]

Hello; Never used one of the wave pumps so cannot say from experience. Could the wave pump be on a timer so that it only runs part of the time? Not clear to me what the point of waves in a fresh water aquarium might be. I know lakes can have periods of surface waves when the wind is up and there is sufficient reach. I do not think this is a constant thing.

I sort of gathered from the initial post the concern was to move the detritus along? If so perhaps something else needs to be mentioned. That being, in my experience, I still have to use a siphon to get into the substrate even if I manage to get flow arranged to move most stuff into a filter pickup.
Those siphons with a big tube necking down to a small tube pretty much always find some detritus in the gravel. This is even when the filter is getting most of it.
If not having to do the tedious hand siphon of a substrate is a goal, then good luck. May still need to hand siphon from time to time. I tend to do a different section each week during WC and always get stuff.


Hello; Two things come to mind. One is low O2 levels in the water. This is where surface agitation seems to help. Can be done with power units but I prefer air bubbles.

Another is the struggle in the waves takes a lot of energy. We run we breathe heavy. Fish swim hard they do the same??

He seems to be doing better now but I will continue to monitor their behaviour. I do siphon during partial water changes and will continue to do so as required. Surface agitation is definitely not the issue at this time. I am going to dial down the wave pump when I get the controller. Thanks for the great input!