Too much light and filtration/current?

Byron

Do you remember the brand? I have an old Eheim "sponge" that hangs inside the tank in the corner, a plastic mini-canister in looks with the motor on top and the sponge below. It is a super filter; water is drawn in through a circular row of openings and expelled out the motor head. But someone told me they don't make them anymore. I've had this one for more than 15 years.

Yuo might be better online. If you're in the USA, there's Drs.Foster&Smith that have several makes of fluorescent fixtures. I've never used them, being in Canada, so I'm not "recommending" them but I do like their website, as it has loads of data on the products.

Substrate fish are possible; a group of cory (5-6 of the average species, or 9-11 of the dwarf species). And possibly a group of hatchetfish for the top? The species in Carnegiella are best, smaller, and quiet. Check out Carbegiella marthae (a silver type) or Carnegiella strigata (marble). A group of 8-9 of either (not both). Or some pencilfish? Nannostomus eques would be fine, 7-8; or Nannostomus marginatus (7-8) or Nannostomus morthentaleri for some real red.

Quantum

One filter was from Marineland. It was essentially a powerhead with a sponge filter for the intake. The problem with that one was the flow rate. It was about the same as my canister. Another one was by Fluval and was similar to what you described: a plastic box with slits for water intake in which a sponge was placed with a small motor on top to pull water through the sponge, I may go back and get that one.

I cleaned up my old T8 fixture and bought a new bulb - single 15 watt tube, no Kelvin rating shown, but primary peaks at 640 and 420 nm on the spectral graph.

I think I will definitely get some corys, I like those, maybe 3 regular and 3 albino aeneus.

Thanks for the input.

Byron

Was the Fluval this one?
Aquatic products

With corys, minimum 3 per species is fine when there will be 2 or more species.

Quantum

The one that I thought was the best of the internal filters was the Fluval U1. It had foam only and looked like it had better flow (more slits in the case). There were others, similar to what you linked to, but they had things like charcoal chambers/inserts and they generally had very small intake areas.

Installed the T8 fixture and does it seem dim, which I guess it is compared to the double T5. I think the setup you described with the two 10 watt CFLs would be the right combo, so I think I will try to find one of those eventually.