Am I Overstocked?

[amy1994]

I'm sorry i didn't read properly

You are overstocked, it's said you should have 2 females to 1 male. but you do need less platies in there.

 

[MICKEYSWIFT]

At the end of the day if your filtration is working good and your ammonia levels are down and nitrite levels are down and you have control over your nitrate, then i dont see why you cant be slightly overstocked. Just keep checking your water, and take action if something occurs, why touch something which dont need touching.

 

[marieukxx]

Does Nitrate tell you if the water is too full of poo. Is that what the problem is that it can get too dirty quickly? I'm just trying to understand. To me it looks very roomy in there for them.

 

[amy1994]

How big are they at the moment?

 

[marieukxx]

How big are they at the moment?

I'm gonna pop some pics on

in that last one that's them looking out the side as they like to gather there and look out when anyone comes in.

and yes I know them white orange and black ones are up the duff lol

 

[MICKEYSWIFT]

Does Nitrate tell you if the water is too full of poo. Is that what the problem is that it can get too dirty quickly? I'm just trying to understand. To me it looks very roomy in there for them.

Yeah bassically. Nitarte is the end product the benificial bacteria produce, the only way of getting rid of it is by a water change, But dont worry its not harmful to fish at low levels so as long as you do regular 1 - 2 week 15 - 20% water changes you should be fine. (Dont leT it get above 40 PPM)
Also put some live plants in your tank as nitrate is an excellent fertilizer, and they will help to keep the nitrate levels low too.
Just keep monitering your water, i personally think the fish you have in there are fine. Like i say if you have good filtration and good maintenance skills you should be ok, but dont add anymore.

 

[marieukxx]

Does Nitrate tell you if the water is too full of poo. Is that what the problem is that it can get too dirty quickly? I'm just trying to understand. To me it looks very roomy in there for them.

Yeah bassically. Nitarte is the end product the benificial bacteria produce, the only way of getting rid of it is by a water change, But dont worry its not harmful to fish at low levels so as long as you do regular 1 - 2 week 15 - 20% water changes you should be fine. (Dont leT it get above 40 PPM)
Also put some live plants in your tank as nitrate is an excellent fertilizer, and they will help to keep the nitrate levels low too.
Just keep monitering your water, i personally think the fish you have in there are fine. Like i say if you have good filtration and good maintenance skills you should be ok, but dont add anymore.

Thanks yeah won't be adding anymore. I'll check the Nitrate in a bit and post back the results

Does a snail add to the load? Nobody has answered that one.

 

[marieukxx]

Just did the nitrate test and I'm now waiting 5 minutes for it to develop

 

[amy1994]

They're lovely, they are quite small at the moment, but you might just get away with it.

 

[marieukxx]

Poo results coming in a sec lol.

 

[marieukxx]

Right the Nitrate result is 5.0ppm I did the gravel and 20% water change on sunday

 

[Tizer]

Does Nitrate tell you if the water is too full of poo. Is that what the problem is that it can get too dirty quickly? I'm just trying to understand. To me it looks very roomy in there for them.

Yeah bassically. Nitarte is the end product the benificial bacteria produce, the only way of getting rid of it is by a water change, But dont worry its not harmful to fish at low levels so as long as you do regular 1 - 2 week 15 - 20% water changes you should be fine. (Dont leT it get above 40 PPM)
Also put some live plants in your tank as nitrate is an excellent fertilizer, and they will help to keep the nitrate levels low too.
Just keep monitering your water, i personally think the fish you have in there are fine. Like i say if you have good filtration and good maintenance skills you should be ok, but dont add anymore.

It doesnt particularly matter if your nitrates sit at 80+ppm either, as mentioned in several threads on here, no ill effects really start to occur unless its over 400 and the chances of that happening are extremely small since tapwater is normally between 0 and 50.

Dont worry about the nitrate tests for now, as mentioned many times already ammonia and nitrite are key ones to monitor. Its so easy to get information overload and get mixed up, keep it simples.

What are ammonia and nitrite readings?

 

[marieukxx]

Does Nitrate tell you if the water is too full of poo. Is that what the problem is that it can get too dirty quickly? I'm just trying to understand. To me it looks very roomy in there for them.

Yeah bassically. Nitarte is the end product the benificial bacteria produce, the only way of getting rid of it is by a water change, But dont worry its not harmful to fish at low levels so as long as you do regular 1 - 2 week 15 - 20% water changes you should be fine. (Dont leT it get above 40 PPM)
Also put some live plants in your tank as nitrate is an excellent fertilizer, and they will help to keep the nitrate levels low too.
Just keep monitering your water, i personally think the fish you have in there are fine. Like i say if you have good filtration and good maintenance skills you should be ok, but dont add anymore.

It doesnt particularly matter if your nitrates sit at 80+ppm either, as mentioned in several threads on here, no ill effects really start to occur unless its over 400 and the chances of that happening are extremely small since tapwater is normally between 0 and 50.

Dont worry about the nitrate tests for now, as mentioned many times already ammonia and nitrite are key ones to monitor. Its so easy to get information overload and get mixed up, keep it simples.

What are ammonia and nitrite readings?

Amonia is 0ppm but sometimes I'm having a hard job seeing if it's 0 or 0.25 as the colours are so similar.
nitrite is 0ppm and the test results have been the same every day for a week