Another update. This is perhaps the most irritating of the updates thus far.
Currently on the market for a good enough product to get a flow from end to end of the tank. First, I bought the Sicce XStream 6500 which was marketed as good for tanks up to 750 liters.Yet the flow it produced was not even HALFWAY along the length of my set-up 473 liter (used for experimentation) before it petered out - that and what I'm about to describe are the biggest ripoffs/false advertisements.
So it was returned after describing the issue to the pet store, and I was sold the 8000 model of the XStream with the reassurance that it would be good enough - for a grand total of 225 bucks. A fat load of good it ended up doing, with a flow that barely made it to HALF the tank and that was very weak at that point in the tank anyway. It will be returned on Wednesday when I can next head on over to the pet store.
I have a hunch that this very measly length of flow is due to the wide output of the XStream. Perhaps a narrower outputted Sicce Voyager will fare better, which is what I'll buy on Wednesday.
And of course, if the Sicce pumps can send enough current across the length of the tank, they're absolutely ideal for the rest of my plans. The 360 degree flexibility is very conducive to my previously mentioned plan for flowing top-midwater conditions for the Botia, sharks, and barbs with calm bottom space for the kuhlis (and for the rest to rest in if they so choose).
cockroach
, what product do you use to get flow across the entire 1.22m of your 284 liter? If the Sicce Voyager doesn't work, I might try a 50% greater output version of the product you have (50% greater to suit the 1.83m vs 1.22m length).
Last but not least, there has been a change in the stocking once more. I no longer believe this tank is big enough for a 25cm adult pink tail chalceus (my views on general tank size for fish have changed from 6x the length and 1.5x the width to 8x the length and 2.5-3x the width), so I won't add one to this 1.83m x 47cm footprint tank.
Instead, as with the yoyo loaches, I wait until I get the custom clown loach tank (which will be 2.42m by 78cm in footprint) for it. And of course, in there it will go with the yoyo loaches and clown loaches.
Therefore, unless I decide later I want to add some non-Asian fish, it seems this tank will be an Asian biotope. More specifically an Indo-Malayan biotope.
There's zebra loaches and roseline sharks from India, Burmese loaches and Odessa barbs from Burma, and kuhli loaches from Indonesia, all of which are in Indo-Malaya.