Fishless tank for aeration, suspended solids removal, and DOC's?

[Cecil]

My yellow perch in the smaller of two tanks that share water and a biological filter swim around and around the tank all day long at a fairly fast clip. Otherwise they feed well 3 X per day and seem healthy, but I can't help thinking they are using up valuable calories that could be used for growth. And there could be some stress.

Therefore I've done some experimenting and think I have found the cause. First I turned off the spray bar completely that provided the centripetal flow that turns the water column in a counter clockwise movement. No difference. Then I turned that back on and turned of the diffuser over the center drain and more and more fish stopped. Not sure if it was curiosity from the sudden change or the turbulence created by the diffuser causes them to keep moving. I can turn it down of course but have doubts if there is enough oxygen in the tank then. However I am going to experiment with a D.O. meter to determine the difference in D.O. levels.

Anyway, if it is the diffuser I could move these fish into a larger tank of bluegills and use this smaller tank as a kind of centralized tank. That is, aerate the piss out of it and also install a homemade foam fractionator in it etc. Also shut down the center drain completely in this tank and have the u tube siphon filter the suspended solids of which it seems I'm not seeing as much solids in it once I devised the center drain.

Thoughts?

[GaryD]

Hi Cecil,

Anyway, if it is the diffuser I could move these fish into a larger tank of bluegills and use this smaller tank as a kind of centralized tank. That is, aerate the piss out of it and also install a homemade foam fractionator in it etc. Also shut down the center drain completely in this tank and have the u tube siphon filter the suspended solids of which it seems I'm not seeing as much solids in it once I devised the center drain.

If you decide to move the fish, you could hook their existing tank into the system and use it to house filtration equipment and/or as a sump.

Gary

[Cecil]

Thanks for your response Gary.

I've decided to let be. All the fish seem healthy (feeding well) and I had a fish producer tell me the swimming around and around is normal for yellow perch and actually good for the fish. He says his yellow perch do the same thing.

I do plan on using as sump or something in the future when I get the pole building up and upgrade to more and larger tanks.