Shrimp tolerance to water flow

[kapp]

Hi all,

Am progressing the set up of my first dedicated shrimp tank. (Will post photos of the set up once I'm done.) Anyhoo, have divided a 2 foot tank into 3, with inlet and outlet for the canister filter on opposite sides of the tank. It's a big canister, eheim professional I think (it's an old one of mine that I cleaned up and put new media in) so the water flow from the outlet is quite high, particularly in the small one-third section of the tank it's flowing into.

After doing some research on this forum I actually took some filter wool and wrapped it around the outlet to disperse the flow more, which worked really well (I think that was from one of Gbang's posts). But it's still a medium level flow in this first section.

I've tried to do some research on here to see how shrimp react to different water flow / current rates. I found one small reference saying shrimp don't like water flow at all. Can someone please let me know what water flow / currents shrimp can handle? I'm thinking of keeping any combination of the following (haven't narrowed down exactly what I'm going to put in each section yet): CRS, CBS, yellows or chameleons.

Tank is currently cycling, so no shrimp or fish in there at all yet.

Thanks.

[ineke]

I may not be the best to answer this but as no one else has i will. I have fast water flow in my tanks plus airstones, air wands or extra sponge filters I find as long as they have places to get out of the flow like little caves or rocks to get behind they cope really well. I have right at this moment got 2 females sitting on a large air curtain with lots of bubbles and they just look like they are having a spa. So hiding places and areas where they can sit and feed easily and they should be fine. Mine are doing well and a lot of people on this forum l seem to think they need more filtration so that equals big water flows. If you see them struggling to get around then just add sponge to your inlets as a prefilter and wrap your outlet with light sponge or wool . If they are happily swimming around you know you have it right.

please feel free to disagree with me guys and gals but thats what works for me.

Cheers

Ineke:encouragement:

[northboy]

Most shrimp come for high flow areas, but there is always some place to get out of the flow and rest in the low flow spot. Behind a rock or bit of wood or in cracks in rocks, under cut banks. lots of spots.

As for shrimp not liking flow? not to many time I have seen them in ONLY the still water areas. My Cherries live in both High and low flow tanks and there is no difference in them. Well not quite the truth the low flow tanks have Pipe fish in them and there is not a lot of small shrimp in them.

Crystals are so inbreed they may not be strong enough to cope with the flow all the time, I don't keep Crystals up here it is easier to keep Natives and Cherry types. So some one else will know way more about Crystals that I will.

Bob

[northboy]

I will see if I can find the link to a Video I have of C. longirostris in the wild, in strong flow, the little buggers can hang on.

Bob

[kapp]

Thanks all. Appreciate the feedback.

[BlueBolts]

Majority of my tanks have a 10+:1 flow rate......but with driftwood etc....there's always a quite zone.

[DG17]

Sorry bb this might be a dumb question but what do you mean by 10+:1 flow rate?? I've got a 5000l/h eheim pump with 15mm PVC and ball valves for each of the divided 6 sections. If I wer to time the water flow it would take about 20mins to fill each 42Litre section or roughly 120Litres an hr.. I lose more pressure on the top rack because of height.. Do you think it would be wise to drop down to 12mm reducers or keep the slow flow??

[Magikarp]

I'm guessing at least 10x the amount of water in the tank. So eg 100l tank with 1000lph water flow

[DG17]

Thanks for that mate I assumed that 2, def don't have that amount of flow that's for sure..

[BlueBolts]

Sorry bb this might be a dumb question but what do you mean by 10+:1 flow rate?? I've got a 5000l/h eheim pump with 15mm PVC and ball valves for each of the divided 6 sections. If I wer to time the water flow it would take about 20mins to fill each 42Litre section or roughly 120Litres an hr.. I lose more pressure on the top rack because of height.. Do you think it would be wise to drop down to 12mm reducers or keep the slow flow??

Woah, I need a scientific calculator for the above ... LOL Yeah, 10x tank colume an hour.....so my 26 lt has a 300lt canister = 11 x.

[DG17]

Hahahaha I know hey ok so I've got 3.5-4x max should I invest in another pump or is that ok flow?

[JonX]

Kapp- I further reduce my flow by taking the sponge part of an air driven sponge filter and putting it over the inlet.

It acts as a shrimp saver, pre filter, and adds more biofilm for shrimp to eat.

[Neo-shrimp]

Kapp- I further reduce my flow by taking the sponge part of an air driven sponge filter and putting it over the inlet.

It acts as a shrimp saver' date=' pre filter, and adds more biofilm for shrimp to eat.[/quote']

That's a good tip JonX...

[kapp]

Kapp- I further reduce my flow by taking the sponge part of an air driven sponge filter and putting it over the inlet.

It acts as a shrimp saver' date=' pre filter, and adds more biofilm for shrimp to eat.[/quote']

Thanks Jonnny. Was already planning a trip to my LFS this weekend to get exactly this item - and a couple other things while I'm there. :)