[Grosse Gurke]

I tried adding an AC 5000 power head to my 125 pygo tank, I had to remove it because they all started fighting worse than I have ever seen. I am going to try again this weekend when I have more time to monitor them, and rearrange the tank a little to take out any territories. I was just totally caught off guard, it was mainly my larger yellow natt that got his territory invaded by the others and then he started cleaning house. They were ok for about 5 minutes and all of the sudden it was just a mad house until I decided I needed to shut it off. As soon as I took it out things calmed down again. I am thinking about running some PVC pipe under the gravel to create a river effect tank, that should work off some of the aggression of the bastards.

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

how many gph is that powerhead?

do a tank rearrange it should help too

 

[Grosse Gurke]

how many gph is that powerhead?

do a tank rearrange it should help too

It is 900 gph, they had no idea what hit them when I fired it up

and my intention this weekend is to get rid of the established territories and then drop it back in.

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

dang manm thats way too strong, cut it back to about 500gph or so

 

[Show_Me_The_Teeth]

Ternetzis are great. They do not take crap from any other fish. Maybe two powerheads are in order for your tank.

Good Luck,

SMTT

 

[RhomZilla]

dang manm thats way too strong, cut it back to about 500gph or so

I agree with Nate, that's way to strong for a 125 gal. Im sure that they're most likely fighting for the space where theres less current.

 

[Grosse Gurke]

dang manm thats way too strong, cut it back to about 500gph or so

WTF Nate.
This is what irritates me most about some of your posts. You come back with this condisending tone like what was I thinking putting that much current in my tank. Where do you think I got the idea to add more current to my tank and what would be a good amount to add?

Here is one of your posts on pfish.

Mine have 900gph in a 6ft long tank, so a 4ft would be good with say a 600 gph, if you can afford an upgrade, I think peoples misconception with the whole powerhead idea is that they dont get a stong enough one.

My tank is a 6' long 125 gallon, where did I misinterpreted what you said?

Here is another from pfish that I think you posted here also, this is just a portion.

Here are the recomended gph ratings for traditional size tanks

Tank Size _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _GPH Rating
10g _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 200-300
20g Long _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _350
33g Long and 55g _ _ _ _ _450
75g _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 450-600
90g _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 600-700
100 - 180g _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 600-900

I do not know or claim to know everything about piranhas, so when I am going to add something in my tank I do research on it to find out what has been successful for others. In your calculations section your recomendation is 800 gph. I relied in part on some of the information you posted and you come back with

dang manm thats way too strong, cut it back to about 500gph or so

Very Irritating Nate.

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

chill man, you must have skipped over the part where I say using two powerheads to make 600-1000, I have two in my tank that are just about 500gph, using multiple powerheads just widens the flow no strength

the part about using two pumps was the critical part

 

[NIKE]

grosse i have a powerhead 901 that pushes 900 + gph in my 125gal and my p's did the same thing for the first week. at first they all lined up side by side. then a couple in front and a couple in back. thats when (butt ugly) one of my p's decided to take over the hole left corner. he patroles it constantly!! he has had a couple battles nothing to serious. the reason i like this is. i think this is what goes on in the wild constantly, so i wouldn't be to worried. i usually play with the flow control and shift it do different areas so it's not always in the same spot. i don't think that it is to much power

 

[Xenon]

chill man, you must have skipped over the part where I say using two powerheads to make 600-1000, I have two in my tank that are just about 500gph, using multiple powerheads just widens the flow no strength

the part about using two pumps was the critical part

I didnt see anything about 2 pumps in your previous posts or recommendations.

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

alot of it has to do with the nozzle you use too, use the biggest one you can, small nozzles increase pressure

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

this is from the post

These are just recommendations, you may go bigger and just use a ball valve to restrict flow, this has the advantage over a small pump because you will be able to use it when you upgrade to a large tank, just don't go too large as the back pressure from the valve over time may wear parts out and example would be restricting a 800gph pump to 400gph for long periods of time.

A common misbelief is that multiple of the same pump will increase the gph current felt by your fish. This is wrong, lets introduce a term called "FLUX" it means the amount of flow something has. Multiple pumps will increase the FLUX but not the power of your current. So in plain terms multiple 600gph pumps will give you 600gph but a wider current that a single pump. Very wide tanks may want to go with 2 pumps spread slightly apart at 1/3 the width and 2/3 the width of the tank so that they are equidistant from the edge of the tank and each other

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

they can handle the 900 but it may take them a while to get used to it, no need to get up and rowdy bout it though

 

[Grosse Gurke]

I am not pissed just tired. I was looking for the best gph for piranhas in a 125. You seem to have a good grasp of what they like as far a gph in a tank and now you are telling me that 900 is too much when you were saying 900 is what you want. If you use 2 pumps pushing 500 gph it will just widen the flow, not increase the gph correct? So how can you now say 900 is too much when in the research I did, you were recommending 800-900? I just want a consistant answer from you Nate. If you dont know, say you dont know.

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

I do know, do you have an adjustable nozzle for it? If not use the wide return nozzle attachment. My point is 900 is alot for them to get used to at first, they need to work themselves into shape for that much

 

[Judazzz]

You seem to have a good grasp of what they like as far a gph in a tank and now you are telling me that 900 is too much when

I think it differs from situation to situation. Mt tank is 52" in length, and I only use a 325gph powerhead, but my reds don't like it one bit. They basically just ignore it.

I think all you can do is make recommendations (and I think that was what Nate did, although he could have stated it more strongly) about the gph-to-tanksize ratio, based on your own experiences. I believe any experienced piranha owner (and I view you as an experienced piranha keeper, Jeff) should know that information from hobby sites like Nate's or my own shoud be seen as based on personal experience, because we simply lack the tools and skills to make and back up scientific statements. Info you find on sites like that should be read/accepted with precaution, imo, but it should also be stated on the website itself.

Just my 2 cents.... :smile:

 

[rosecityrhom]

Nate,
I thought you were only using the current from your wet/dry and no powerheads at all or am I thinking of someone else? I'm thinking of taking out my powerheads completely...I honestly don't think it assists their activiting at all...in my 80 gallon I have 2 penguin 1140's pushing 300gph each and they ignore them.

 

[rosecityrhom]

I'm gonna conduct my own little experiment and observe their behavior...I'm gonna take them out right now. I have a wet/dry in mine plus a fluval 404, the wet/dry is running around 4-500gph and the 404 is 340gph. I'll post my results in a couple weeks to a month in equipment forum.

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

Nate,
I thought you were only using the current from your wet/dry and no powerheads at all or am I thinking of someone else? I'm thinking of taking out my powerheads completely...I honestly don't think it assists their activiting at all...in my 80 gallon I have 2 penguin 1140's pushing 300gph each and they ignore them.

well yes and no, the returns from my wet drys are the same as two 500 gph powerheads would be, they are nozzle returns from a predrilled tank. At one time I bought a 800gph pump to add even more current, but they started swimming into the deflected current from the opposite end instead so I quit using it

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

One other thing, I agree with Judaaz its only based on my experience though I should mention I am a real perfectionist when it comes to my setups whether its my tanks, cars, guns, you name it, I am always tweaking until I get things just right, and this is the flow ratage my fish like best, I did have it more like 900 at one time but did have the fish staying at the other end alot to rest (they werent in shape then) and would fight since they were all crowded up down there