Water Currrent

[lisaclown]

Hello all! I'm new to your forum and wanted to tell you I've enjoyed and learned much from reading all of your posts.

I "inherited" a 55 gallon tank with the stand and all the goodies from my landlady a few years back. They had a few crappies (actual fish from a lake) living in it until my husband and I set them free (and he was hoping he could go fishing and catch them to eat--they were FAT!) Anyway, I've had the tank set up for 3 years for one purpose...to house A (ONE) goldfish my son won at the fair. We never thought the goldfish would live, but that thing grew from being smaller than my pinky to longer than my entire hand (that was also what I wanted to know about the validity of people saying a fish grows to the size of the tank, since that goldfish just kept growing). The goldfish died a few months ago

I cleaned and set the tank up for tropicals; the water was cycled and now we have basically little schools of tetras. What I'm wondering..to get to the question...is what the water current should be. I've read that tetras are found in rivers, so do they like a current? I'm thinking that my powerhead is kicking out too fast of a current. They really seem to swim. The powerhead nozzle is pointed to the glass, but that gives the entire tank a swirling effect. They seem pretty content, but I'm always wondering if I'm tiring them out and if they need a break. The only other filters I have is a long airstone in the back of the tank, and two Whisper filters (hook on the outside of the tank and filters water through the BioBags with activated charcoal). I have the powerhead setting on a tube that goes to the underground gravel filter plates, and the nozzle is currently set on the position where it sucks the water from the bottom and blows and ariates it through the water.

Long post...I know...but I've basically had to jimmy-rig the entire aquarium and I want to make sure I'm getting the best filtration possible without having to dump loads of money into it and making do with what I can. The whole current thing was bothering me, since I didn't want the little tetras "smashing" into the glass from the current...no, it's really not that bad! but I'd like to know other peoples' opinions.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Great Lakes]

Lisa, unless you have a powerhead of monolithic size, I don't see anyhting to worry about. The fish usually like this, and in a 55gal, I am sure they can avoid it for the most part if so inclined.

Your two filters should be adequate also.

 

[wetwetwet]

As GL says there should be a few less turbulent areas that the fish can retreat to (if so inclined).

I have my pwerhead angled to the surface first which seems to reduce the turbulence in the tank and has the added benifit of aggitating the surface water more and so gives better oxygen exchange Just try a few different nozzel positions.

I f you still think that its too excessive you could consider adding a spray bar ???