I have a 29 gallon tank with a hob filter (aquatech 20/40) under gravel filter heater and a plant light. Living in the tank are 6 gold tetras, 5 neon tetras, 2 bloodfin tetras, 1 random small tetra, 1 kulhi loach, 1 pleco. I know the kulhi loach needs friends and the pleco needs a larger home, I am working on that. Also in the tank are live plants: 5 jungle val plants, 10 or more chain sword, 1 wisteria, and 1 unknown plant that came with the tank. The water tests the same every time: ph 8, ammonia 0, and nitrite 0. I add a half teaspoon of Kent’s iron manganese with my weekly water change and my light runs for 10 hours a day on a timer. I change 5 gallons a week and started adding the Kents when I added the new plants. I feed the fish flakes one day then blood worms the next (freeze dried sometime and frozen others). I skip one day a week with feeding. So thats what I’ve got.

I am thinking about taking out the power heads and not using the under gravel filter anymore but I have some questions. First question is about oxygen, I let one of the power heads shoot out air bubbles to oxygenate the tank, is that necessary? If I shut down the power heads should I add an air pump and air stone? Second question is how do I know if there is enough oxygen in the there for the fish?

One other thing I wonder about is my Kulhi loach, he spends 99% of his life buried in the gravel so if I take out the power heads there is a chance he will get under the under gravel filter. Should I worry about that? I really want more Kulhi Loaches but I haven’t had the best luck with adding new fish and I expect these guys to bury themselves in the gravel so I’m not sure I want to add fish that I’ll rarely see unless I’m sure they aren’t gonna bury themselves then die where I cant see or find them. Any suggestions?

I have a Marineland emperor 400 biowheel filter that I would like to use. I want to use it because of the bio wheels and because I can add or replace carbon without changing the filter pad. How will I know if there is too much current in the tank after switching to this filter?

I also have a plan for a diy light but I’ll save that for another post

Anybody got any ideas about anything related to my tank, go ahead and throw them out there, a good brainstorming session could help me out. Don’t be shy you aren’t gonna hurt my feelings.
Thanks!

Hi
I dont know a ton about fish yet but I can comment on a few things
from the sounds of it, it looks like your taking good care of your aquarium, as for oxygen in your tank it is not necessary to put air bubbles in the powerhead oxygen gets into the tank from the surface and air pump does not add air to the tank it agitates the surface which gets more water circulating to the surface. the powerheads add air to the tank by circulating water themselves. I think you will be ok with your fish and their air without powerheads but they are really nice on plants and help a lot with health quality of the tank. if you notice your fish breathing heavily it could be from oxygen depletion (or a sickness) but at that point is when i would worry about o2 in the tank.
hope i didnt ramble.

and as for the 400 filter it definitely is overkill but that doesnt mean its a bad thing. some people really like to over filtrate their tank personally I have 5x the filtration in my tank. you should try it out, if you notice your fish struggling against the current or not liking the current is when i would say it is not good for the tank. some fish like it some dont it just depends on yours i would say try it if they dont like it take it out. usually fish can find spots in the tank to rest where the current is not as strong.

i hope all this helped

__________________
Tank
125g african cichlids making it work
75g rimless Reef in progress

Awesome! Thanks for the advice, its what I was looking for. What about the rest of you....

I ran a marineland penguin 350b on my 29g for a few weeks and none of the fish minded it at all. I have swordtails and mollies in there. everything else sounds pretty good to me!

__________________
"Being ignorant is not so much a Shame, as being unwilling to learn".-- Benjamin Franklin

The bulk of the Tetra family comes from lower ph waters.. Well below 7.0 and extremely soft water.. UG's?. I'd suggest not if plants and without the powerheads will deliver nothing. I gave up on UG's 30 years ago. O2 depletion?.. Forget it.. you've got what ya need. the surface agitation from the hob will promote the gas exchange your looking for. KISS is the best method in my humble opinion. Bill in Va.

__________________
12 Tanks, 900 gallons. Discus/Angels/Malawi/Lake Victorias. Just added a 135 & 2 - 29's..

Anybody else wanna chime in on this?

I have another question. I plan to make my own filters for the Emperor 400 by taking a Marineland cartridge and taking it apart (to get the carbon out of it) and I'm not sure how I am going to reattatch filter floss to the frame. Marineland melts the plastic frame to the filter floss so I thinking about using hot glue. Anybody use hot glue in aquariums before? Is it safe? Got a better idea?

My kuhli loach gets under my unused under-gravel filter all the time. He keeps it very clean under there by eating all the accumulated waste. He gets in and out all the time on his own. no worries

__________________
55 gallon FW community
20 gallon Goldfish
10 gallon firebelly toad

"My kuhli loach gets under my unused under-gravel filter all the time. He keeps it very clean under there by eating all the accumulated waste. He gets in and out all the time on his own. no worries "

So what do you think about leaving the short part of the tube that goes to the powerhead attached to the plate so he could go under there without going through the gravel to find the hole? Kinda like Mario Brothers he would have a tube to go down. I'd rather have him under the undergravel filter so he doesnt disturb my plants anyway.