How Many Cardinals Can I Add To My Tank?

[kuler22]

I have a fully cycled 20 Gal tank (24x12x16)that was setup about 2 1/2 months ago. It is filtered with an Eheim 2215 canister and the current water parameters are AMM 0, NIT 0, Nitrates 5 PPM with a PH of 7.6.

It was recently stocked with the following:

4 White Cloud Mountain Minnows
2 Amano Shrimp
1 Peppered Cory
3 Red Eye Tetras (just moved out of tank yesterday to other tank)

Since I have moved the 3 Red Eyes which were about 2 inches or so each, I was thinking of purchasing 8-10 locally bred Cardinals. Normally I would not buy that many at once but I thought that since my biofilter could still support a larger population (less than 24 hours since tetra removal) that introducing this many Cardinals would not be an issue for the bioload.

Looking for those with many more years experience than I for some advice. I also heard that since the Cardinals I was buying were a smaller version of the species (not large breed) that you could carry a larger population.

Please provide your thoughts...

Thanks.

 

[MrGT500]

8 to 10 should be fine, i would also up the number of corys to around 6 or so as they like to be in groups.

 

[kuler22]

8 to 10 should be fine, i would also up the number of corys to around 6 or so as they like to be in groups.

Thanks. I thought about adding more Cory's but mine is already about 2 inches in size so I did not want to overstock there as well. Do Cory's add a large bioload per fish?

 

[MrGT500]

8 to 10 should be fine, i would also up the number of corys to around 6 or so as they like to be in groups.

Thanks. I thought about adding more Cory's but mine is already about 2 inches in size so I did not want to overstock there as well. Do Cory's add a large bioload per fish?

i wouldnt think so, they arent messy like plecos and mine do an extremely good job of keeping my sand clean.