125 Gallon Stocking Opinion

[Hamsnacks]

Currently running a 125 Gallon Tank
72" Wide
18" Deep
23" High

FX6 Filter, heavily planted, 30% water change per week.

Current Stock

20 x Cardinal Tetras
10 x Black Ruby Barbs
10 x Odessa Barbs
7 x Corys
6 x Ottos
3 x Pitcus Catfish
3 x Synodontis multipunctatus
3 x Nerite Snails
2 x BN Pleco
2 x Siamese Algae Eaters
2 x AngelFish
2 x Bosemani Rainbows (I know the number is low)
1 x Banjo Catfish
Unkown Amount of Cherry Shrimp living in the plants.

Am I at capacity?
I was hoping to add:

10 x Rummy Nose Tetras
10 x Harlequin Rasboras

Opinions?

Thanks

 

[Hamsnacks]

Sorry Forgot I also have

1 x Rainbow Shark (No issues with him at all right now, very friendly)
1 x Betta (Same deal as the Rainbow Shark)
10 x Candy Cane Tetras

 

[Colin_T]

What is your water chemistry (pH, GH, KH and temperature)?

Who suggested Synodontis multipunctatus?
These fish come from Lake Tanganyika where the GH is over 400ppm and the pH is above 8.0. If they are kept in soft acid water you need to find them another home. They also like company and do best in groups of 6 or more.

Melanotaenia boesemani should have water with a GH above 200ppm and pH above 7.0. All rainbowfish should be kept in groups of 6 or more. Try to keep even numbers of males (2, 4, 6) and get similar sized fish to stop the bigger males picking on the smaller ones.
Rainbows will eat small shrimp.

How long has the tank been set up for?

Do bigger water changes (50-75%) each week.

 

[Jeremy180]

Wow....
Pretty sure these fish will already be too many when they hit full size, definitely do not recommend adding more.

I would also call the Cardinals borderline for being too small to be completely safe with full size angelfish and Pictus, although Pictus are pretty peaceful to anything too big to eat.

EDIT: Agree with Colin on the chemistry incompatibility with the Synodontis and rainbowfish, and Rainbow shark tend to start out relatively peaceful, but can get pretty territorial with age, especially to others in the sharkminnow family like the Siamese algae eater.

I also think that keeping a betta Splendens in this tank would be a risky proposition..

By the way, do you know which corydoras species you have? Some species prefer temperatures lower than your angelfish and Cardinals would be comfortable in.

Overall, if you have soft, low ph water, I recommend rehoming the Synodontis and rainbowfish.
If the water is soft, They might work in another tank at least 75 gallons with some lake cichlid minerals to raise the hardness, and the rainbow shark could possibly be moved there too if he starts causing trouble.
Not sure if that high a PH is within the shark's tolerance range or not.
If you have naturally hard water, that is a much more difficult situation to fix.

EDIT 2: If these are the pygmy cory from your previous thread, then temperature wise I think they will be alright.

 

[Hamsnacks]

Thanks for the responses.

Some of the answers to your questions:

pH at Night: 8, the day is about 7 due to the CO2
GH: 180 ppm
KH: It was a bit tricky to read, initially looked more like 180, but might be 240 ppm
However, one thing to note, the test strips I am using don't go higher than those number.
Temp: 78 degrees

The tank has been set up for almost 5 months now. Unfortunately cannot do much larger water changes, for now, actually been doing about 20 percent as the city's tap water has been testing for around 8.0ppm Ammonia and people are posting pictures of their fish dying in large numbers after large water changes, but I do vacuum once a week.

Based on these numbers do you think the Synodontis are alright?

As of right now, I am not too concerned with aggressiveness as every fish is fully grown, (except for the shark and synodontis) and show no signs of aggression other than the Angels towards each other. The only fish I am keeping an eye out for is the Shark, he's still young I know when he's older he has the capability of causing havoc so will be watching him.
The corys are a mix of pepper, bronze and julii.

I personally thought based on the way the tank was set up the numbers worked but will have to think it over.

Thanks for the responses

 

[Colin_T]

pH at Night: 8, the day is about 7 due to the CO2

You need to stabilise the pH.

A fluctuating pH, especially one that goes from 7.0 to 8.0 and then back to 7.0, is going to kill the fish. Reduce the amount of CO2 being added to the tank.

A GH of 180ppm is fine for the rainbowfish but too soft for the Synodontis. And with a fluctuating pH they are not going to be happy.

If you have 8ppm of ammonia in your water supply, contact the water company and inform them, (assuming they don't already know). Then contact the press and health department. You do not want to be drinking or showering in water that has 8ppm of Ammonia in it. A safe level of ammonia is less than 1ppm and even then I think it should be 0 but I don't make the rules.

 

[Jeremy180]

Wow, 8.0 ammonia from the tap!?

Have there been any public notices to not drink the water?
Unless have misunderstood their meaning of the word geogenic, then according to the information on the section titled "water" on page 7 of this document by the world health organization,
https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/ammonia.pdf

"The presence of ammonia at higher than geogenic levels"-(Goundwater, which has a natural maximum of 2-3 mg/liter=2-3ppm?)-"are an important indicator of fecal contamination."

This combined with the note in the same section that ammonia levels over 2 mg/l, or 2ppm interfere with the disinfecting properties of chlorine means that I would definitely not use the water for drinking, bathing, cooking, or washing clothes /dishes , much less Fishkeeping

 

[Hamsnacks]

You need to stabilise the pH.

A fluctuating pH, especially one that goes from 7.0 to 8.0 and then back to 7.0, is going to kill the fish. Reduce the amount of CO2 being added to the tank.

I thought the correct way to determine the amount of CO2 to inject is doing a 1 pH drop. I know a lot of people referred to the chart, but from everything I read they all said the best way was go with a pH drop.

In regards to the City, not everyone was getting 8.0, but plenty were getting around 4, if not everyone. But the city insisted that, that was perfectly fine and there were no statements released or anything. It was safe for human use. I didn't go into much detail or bother calling because plenty of members called and all got pretty much the same answer. So everyone is either just doing smaller water changes or none at all waiting for the ammonia to drop.

 

[Colin_T]

If you are adding carbon dioxide and it is dropping the pH, then there is not enough carbonate hardness (unlikely in your case) or you are adding too much CO2.

If you let the pH drop 0.1 point that would be ok but 1.0 is way too much for any fish to tolerate.
eg: your pH is normally 8.0, when you add CO2 the pH should not change but if you want to add enough to change the pH, you would let it drop to 7.9. But it is preferable not to let the pH fluctuate at all.

Massive pH changes (from 8.0 down to 7.0) can lead to acidosis or alkalosis that can kill fish.

Most plant tanks have lots of carbonate hardness to stop the carbon dioxide from dropping the pH, but they have a stabile pH.

In addition to the above, too much CO2 can harm or kill the fish. They basically suffocate and the excess CO2 does internal damage to the organs and blood. The fish can look fine on the outside, then up and die.

You want to add CO2 until the pH starts to change (drop a tiny bit, 0.1 point) and then reduce the CO2 a bit.

-------------------------
You can get Ammogon or Zeolite to remove ammonia from water. You would need to get a large plastic container and fill it with tap water. Add dechlorinator and aerate vigorously. After about 30 minutes add a filter with some Ammogon/ Zeolite and let it run until the ammonia is 0. Then use that water for water changes.

The Ammogon/ Zeolite can be reused after recharging in salt water.