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Water circulation overkill?


Ribo15
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Hey guys, I hope this is the right area for this question. I have a 120 gallon tank and I am using 2 eheim 2217 for filtration I also have a 1850gph wavemaker circulation pump. My tank has juvenile cichlids about 20 of them and yesterday I seen a Cichlid had died by getting sucked against the intake of the wavemaker. I have since stopped using it. I am wondering if it is too overkill for that size of tank or if that was just bad luck and is a rare occurance. It had been running with that pump for a few weeks with no issues. Any help is appreciated. Thanks! The pump is a kedsum I ordered off amazon. 

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Do you enjoy your tank less without the current blast from the wavemaker? If not then leave it off, the tank doesn't need it and many cichlids, apart from pike cichlids and some other specialists, don't hail from water with strong currents. If you are having African Rift Lake cichlids then I don't know their habitats but them being lakes I expect there will be little current except for possible wave action if they live shallow.

Opinions vary on the need for current in tanks. Most say it is beneficial or necessary but I have more than a dozen tanks with zero current and they run just fine. I'm not recommending that in general but IMO the two Eheim's should certainly do the job for filtering and current.

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Okay. It has some perks I’ve noticed like it really kicks up the gunk for the filters to suck up and the fish seem to play around in the current sometimes. For the most part now though the fish are out and about more and at the risk of losing a fish I’ll leave it off I think. Thanks for the info.

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I myself have a 150 gallon with both adult and juvenile africans in it. Peacocks,  haps and mbuna. I aim mine toward the surface for better oxygen exchange and it does make a difference in activity levels. No they would not see that kind of current in the wild but they are also not confined to a glass box. Think of it as a treadmill....... I know they like it.

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I have a 6 foot, 135 gallon tank with two Aqua Clear filters. I added a Hydor 1150gph pump, only because there is a dead spot in the middle and debris accumulates. It is a frontosa tank and they do not care for the strong current so I only have it on for three minutes every two days. It meets my needs without bothering the fish too much.

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