# Tanganyika Aquarium Water Current



## DireWolf (Jul 27, 2011)

I recently combined my cichlids from 2, 70+ gallon tanks into a nice 150g tank that I bought second hand. The tank is exclusively Tanganyika cichlids of 10 different species from shell dwellers to juvenile frontosa. There are plenty of rocks and hiding places etc....

Current Fish are: 94 of them

17 Altolamprologus Black Calvus
3 Altolamprologus Yellow Calvus – 1m, 2fm breeding group
9 Altolamprologus Yellow Compressicep (Gold Head)
1 Altolamprologus Black Compressicep
13 Cyphotilapia Frontosa – Mpimbwe
4 Neolamprologus Leleupi
4 Neolamprologus Helianthus
3 Neolamprologus Tetracanthus
2 Julidochromis Regani
9 Cyprichromis Leptsoma (Utinta)
6 Cyprichromis Microlepidotis (Kiriza Black)
6 Telmatochromis Temporalis
11 Synodontis Petricola (Tanganyika Catfish)
5 sucker fish for cleaning

I am running 2 eheim 2217’s and an aquaclear 500. I believe I have plenty of filtration. The equipment I bought came with 2 Hydor magnum 5 powerheads with 1650gph each. They seem very powerful and I have run them on and off for a while now. At times it seems they like it but other times they seem stressed, though maybe that is in my head? 

I have searched all over the internet regarding water current in a Tanganyika aquarium and came with very little except one article from MongaBay.com stating: “Use a filter that provides little or no current, as Lake Tanganyika has little.”

So, my open questions are: what do some of you use for filtration and water current in your Tanganyika aquariums? Are these too powerful? Maybe some smaller powerheads, or just remove them?

Any and all thoughts welcomed.


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## Y2KGT (Jul 20, 2009)

Welcome to GTAA.

When I look at the list of fish you have in your 150 I feel like the Altolamprologus and Frontosa species probably prefer less flow. 

I also personaly think you have way too many fish in a 150 gallon tank. Some would say the 13 Frontosa alone are too many for a 150.

I would increase the filtration and not use any powerheads.

Just my 2 cents.

Would love to see pictures of you fish collection. I love Calvus.
--
Paul


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## DireWolf (Jul 27, 2011)

Thanks for the reply. Yes, there are a lot of fish in there, I get carried away tring to get many different species, and I too do love the altolamps. The frontosa are still quite small and will weed dominant males out out over time. 

Filtration is at approx 6.8X amd have read 6x to 10x is good but that you can never over filtrate.

I will get some pictures up soon.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

If you test your water and the ammonia and nitrite are at 0 you have enough filtration. Keeping the filters clean will help keep the numbers low. It does seem like you have an awful lot of fish in there. I would suggest you probably don't need the powerheads unless you are getting a build up of debris in certain areas. Even then, my preference would be to remove it from the tank rather than move it to the filter.


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## des (Jul 30, 2011)

You need to decide which fish are your priority. If you are catering to the Frontosas, then I would go with no power head. From what I have viewed, they enjoy deep and clam water. If you want to use your power head, I would aim at the surfaced for good water agitation.

Just a heads up, the compressiceps and calvus could cross bred.


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