So Many Questions...

[BrassMan]

So many questions.

I'm not sure where to post this, Hardware, Planted Aquariums or Gourami, so I'll post it here instead..

First off, I have two Pearl Gourami and 2 Dwarf Honey Gourami in my tank (full list is in my sig) and as I understand it these are still water fish and probably are'nt that happy with the strong current my Fluvel 4+ puts out, I really want to give them the best environment I can. Am I right about this or are Gourami happy in a current and will they ever spawn if the floating plants are always moving around in the current?

To try and reduce the current from the Fluvel I briefly experimented with attaching a spray bar and pointing it down and towards the rear wall, perfect, totally still water with a current running down the back. Only problem is that I now had zero surface turbulence which I'm guessing is bad from an airation point of view. Has anybody else tried this and what did you do about airation?

The tank is fairly heavely planted and I'm injecting CO2 (sugar/yeast reactor), I concidered adding an air stone to get around the lack of airation caused by the spray bar but I'm sure I read somewhere that you don't need any airation if you've got a planted tank, I'm always wary of taking what I read at face value as we read so many contradicting things these days. Can anybody comment on whether this is true or not?

Also, what effect does airation have when Injecting CO2, I seem to remember reading that the airation will cancel out the CO2 injection making it useless but I can't remember enough chemistry to know if this is true. If this is the case it seems to me that I can have lots of happy fish or lots of happy plants but not lots of both or will the happy plants generate enough O2 to replace the O2 lost by not airating?

I guess what I'm really asking here is if you've got a heavily planted tank with a mirror like water surface can you keep as many fish as you can in a non-planted tank with lots of airation?

Sorry about the length of this post , just trying to do right by my fish

Thanks.

 

[Tiggle]

Hey BrassMan

Ive never kept gourami before, but from what ive read they prefer still water. what happens if you turn your spray bar so that it points up and slightly breaks the water surface? doese it create too much current? i keep bettas (fighters) and i know they have real problems building a bubble nest that stays together if there is anymore then a gentle water current.

Using an airstone in a tank increases surface aggitation which allows gases to exchange with the atmosphere ie, oxygen to go into the water and carbon dioxide to go out. so yes, when your injecting CO2 the airstone is removing it. Plants use CO2 during the day and O2 at night, so by morning the tank can be quite starved of oxygen and your CO2 level quite high. watch your fish, do they gasp at the surface? if so you could try unplugging your CO2 at night and/or running an airstone only at night to increase the oxygen.

Im not sure, but i would think that a flat water surface would mean the tank is less capable of holding fish then a well agitated one. Hopefully someone with more know-how will come along with some more advice.

 

[sylvia]

Yes, gouramies like pearls and dwarfs preffer to have a calm tank - or one with only a tiny bit of current. They won't spawn if there's too much surface turbulance - simply because they can't build a bubblenest. On the other hand, gouramies become relatively aggressive when they spawn (though pearlsa nd dwarfs are not too bad) so you may actualy find it's better that they don't spawn

I'd normaly suggest reducing the water flow and just removing the CO2 altogether but it does depend on your plants and, in your case, you have a mix of fish that, water-flow wise, are incompatible. White clouds, for example, besides not actualy being tropical, need a fast flow. Similarly, clown loaches won't thrive in still water (though they also, idealy, need a larger tank) and cories also like good flow. On the other end of the spectrum you have the gouramies and the guppies that cannot handle a strong current because of their impractical fancy tails

All an air stone does is increase the surface area through which the O2 can get into the water and it's certainly beneficial to your fish as they need that oxygen to live (though it's not as important to the gouramies since they breathe air). In fact, I'd argue that CO2 injections are harmful because of the pH fluctuations they cause (something gouramies are particularly sensitive to).

Having said that, I'm shure your plants benefit from the added CO2 - though reducing the surface aggitation by decreasing the water flow from your filter(s) would have a similar effect anyway as the CO2 the fish' produce wouldn't leave the water as quickly and the plants could use it. In your position I'd go that route and simply remove the fish (namely the white clouds and loaches) that won't like the change.

Note that plants photosynthesise in the presence of light (so they use CO2 during the day) but they also respire continuously just as animals do (so they are also using O2 pretty much all the time). During the day, the two cancel out or even more O2 is produced than CO2 - but during the night plants act pretty much like animals in that they take in O2 and give out CO2. So, plants don't act as a replacement for aeration/filters BUT the number of fish you can keep depends more on what fish they are than on this.

For example, you could keep a number of gouramies (in theory) without any aeration or plants because they don't need high levels of oxygen in the water. Equaly, you couldn't keep white clouds in a tropical tank with CO2 injections and plants but no aeration - they are very hardy mind you and may not obviously be affected until later when exposed to a disease.

edit: Tiggle beat me to it. BTW bettas are gouramies I agree with what was said except that unplugging the CO2/adding aeration at night is not a good idea as it'll cause some even more major pH fluctuations (CO2 makes water acidic, O2 makes it alkaline).

 

[BrassMan]

Thanks Sylvia,

Just the kind of info i was after. I think for now I'm not going no worry too much as the Guorami seem happy enough and there are some calmer areas in the tank that they can go to when they want. At some point I may think about setting up another tank specificaly for these fish as I'd really like to have a go at breeding them.

I'll leave the CO2 as it is, it's running of the same timer that controls the lights so hopefully PH and O2 should remain reasonably stable, although saying that I'm not sure it's really doing much as PH and KH hav'nt changed noticably since installing it, maybe it's too small for the tank (PH 7.8, KH 161ppm).

The White Clouds would'nt have been my choice either as I understand they are'nt really tropical but don't mind tropical temperatures, they were among the fish I got from my brother when he decided he no longer wanted to keep a tank (along with most of the other fish which were all crammed into a little 58ltr tank) so I did'nt have much choice about what to stock. The Pearl Gourami, Cory's and Clowns were my choice though.

I'm hoping the Clowns will be ok in a 216Ltr tank for a couple of years and when necessary I'll either find them good homes or buy a bigger tank.

One last question, The Pearls I've got are about 2 inches long, fully grown I believe is 4-5 inches, are they able to breed before the're fully grown?

Thanks,

Paul.

Hey BrassMan

Ive never kept gourami before, but from what ive read they prefer still water. what happens if you turn your spray bar so that it points up and slightly breaks the water surface? doese it create too much current? i keep bettas (fighters) and i know they have real problems building a bubble nest that stays together if there is anymore then a gentle water current.

Using an airstone in a tank increases surface aggitation which allows gases to exchange with the atmosphere ie, oxygen to go into the water and carbon dioxide to go out. so yes, when your injecting CO2 the airstone is removing it. Plants use CO2 during the day and O2 at night, so by morning the tank can be quite starved of oxygen and your CO2 level quite high. watch your fish, do they gasp at the surface? if so you could try unplugging your CO2 at night and/or running an airstone only at night to increase the oxygen.

Im not sure, but i would think that a flat water surface would mean the tank is less capable of holding fish then a well agitated one. Hopefully someone with more know-how will come along with some more advice.

Hey Tiggle (sorry, could'nt resist )

I tried the spraybar at a few different angles but for now I've decided to leave it off and just let things be for now as the Goutami seem happy enough. My CO2 is linked to the light timer so it's off at night which should prevent an O2/PH crash (fingers crossed).

Thanks,

Paul.