Honey Gourami quantity and flow rate questions

I'm planning on getting some more fish for my 75 gallon medium planted tank and really want a honey gourami with my community fish. In researching I found a few questions/conflicting thoughts on a few things and wanted to get some more opinions.

My planned set up is having 25 neon tetras, 12 false julii corys, 12 cherry barbs, 10 amano shrimp, and a single honey gourami.

• - Ideally a single honey gourami - I found several videos on YouTube from well known fish keepers that only have 1 in a community tank and they are doing fine/active/no issues of shyness. But in most other research I found keeping a pair M/F or 2F/1M is more ideal but I'm not interested in breeding or potentially having bubble nest aggression issues when introducing a female.
  • Thoughts on having a single honey in my community vs more?
  • How bad is the aggression if I do get a 2F/1M and he starts to guard a nest? I get chasing other away, but if they attack or keep bothering other fish the whole time will be a bit much.
• I have 2 HOB one AC70 and one AC110 and I read that they like light flow for tanks. Will my flow rate from the HOBs be too much for them or will they be ok? I don't have any wave makers/powerheads just the normal HOB flow.

I had a M/F pair honey gouramis in my 75 gallon community aquarium. When Mr. Gourami went into breeding mode (a dark slanted patch appears along the "throat" area) he claimed a corner of the aquarium for himself and his attempts at building a bubble nest. For a few weeks it was no big deal, he'd hang out there, venture forth to court Ms. Gourami who was totally uninterested, and then return to his corner to blow bubbles. Eventually he got quite a bit more territorial and would chase all the other fish away from "his" half of the aquarium. He never attacked the other fish, just chased them away. I got tired of that pretty quickly and I exiled him to a 16 gallon aquarium, my son renamed him Napoleon, where he lives with a few ember tetras and has been a model inhabitant. No bubble nests, no dark slanted breeding time patch. His former love interest, now named Josephine, lives happily in the 75 gallon community aquarium and all the fish can go wherever they want in there.

I'd say that honey gouramis are peaceful fish on their own, but a M/F pair could be a bit problematic when one goes into breeding mode. Proceed with caution, they're peaceful for the most part but they do have some of that gourami feistiness, at least some of them do.

On paper the two ACs are about 800 gph on a 75, but that's the rating with clean media at zero head, and it's a surface return rather than a jet. What matters more is where the two outflows land. Both on the same long side and you get one loop running the length of the tank; at opposite ends they largely cancel each other in the middle.

Honeys will settle wherever the water is slowest, and some planting in front of an outflow does more for that than throttling the intake.

What matters more is where the two outflows land. Both on the same long side and you get one loop running the length of the tank; at opposite ends they largely cancel each other in the middle.

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I do have one on the left side and one on the right side. For the AC110 I added some filter floss to the top where the water comes out to try and slow it down a bit so it's not splashing hard into the tank. You are saying that part is more important than the actual water intake through the tube?

some planting in front of an outflow does more for that than throttling the intake.

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I'm currently growing up some jungle vals in front where the water outflow is - when they get big enough would that also help?

I attach a small piece of coarse foam to the spillway with a rubber band or zip tie. It does not slow the flow, but it disperses it nicely and my honey gourami swims near it all the time so it must be effective.

Opposite ends is the calmer of the two, so you're already where you want to be. The two returns meet in the middle and cancel instead of driving a lap around the tank, and the middle is where the gourami will sit. That's also why I'd leave the intake lever alone: closing it down just puts less water through the media without changing much about the pattern in the tank.

The vals will help once they're tall enough to lay over at the surface, which is where an AquaClear's flow actually is. Right now, at knee height, they're not in the way of it.