Overstocked 10 gallon?

[Newbie283]

Hi there,

After 23 days of fishless cycling my 10 gallon finally could process 3ppms of ammonia in 24 hours with zero nitrates. Since then I've rescaped (twice!!!) And finally stocked my tank. I put 4 panda corys, one large zebra nerite, one small tiger nerite, and my male koi half moon betta I bought on aquabid. Everyone has been in there for 3 days now, daily water tests show 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 5-10 nitrates. I started with 4 nerites but after seeing all the poo I removed 2 putting one in each of my 5 gallons (1 male betta, 2 ghost shrimps, one snail.) I'm getting some more livestock this weekend and I need bioload opinions. Basically I want some seasoned opinion on if you think my tank would be overstocked. The end game is one male betta, 4 panda corys, one bandit (a friend has a lone one and I felt so bad he didn't have a school so he will be added to my panda clan), 2 nerites, and a giant bamboo shrimp. I was also considering added 3 Amanos into the mix to clean up the substrate a bit. My tank is heavily planted and will be more grown in later since the stem plants were just put in about a week ago. I will also include flora list if anyone is interested! Pictures included! Thank you

https://ibb.co/ePG9Ac
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[King puff]

Beautiful tank! Your tank is perfectly stocked in my opinion. I have a heavily planted 29 gallon with 50+ Malaysian trumpet snails and my water parameters are still very low. I do 50% water changes every weekend which help a lot. I do not even vacuum the gravel because there are so many plants. Once all of your plants grow in, you will be in the same position as me. The only problem is the Corys. They prefer sand or fine gravel so the can sift. This is not a big issue now but I would still keep and eye on them.

 

[Newbie283]

Beautiful tank! Your tank is perfectly stocked in my opinion. I have a heavily planted 29 gallon with 50+ Malaysian trumpet snails and my water parameters are still very low. I do 50% water changes every weekend which help a lot. I do not even vacuum the gravel because there are so many plants. Once all of your plants grow in, you will be in the same position as me. The only problem is the Corys. They prefer sand or fine gravel so the can sift. This is not a big issue now but I would still keep and eye on them.

Thank you !! I really love the driftwood in this tank. Hopefully the bark doesn't cause issues later but it was sold and labled for aquarium use so hopefully that doesn't happen! My pandas are honestly my favorite and while they don't school together all the time they are very active and lively fish. Mine even like to sniff up the driftwood and higher up on my stem plants. Hopefully the bandit decides to school with them. I'm excited to try a bamboo shrimp I find them fascinating. My betta will try to eat anything it can fit it's mouth around so any shrimp smaller than amano are a no. Tomorrow I will get 3 amano for extra substrate cleanup and then Friday I will get my bamboo shrimp and bandit cory! Id like to gets higher power filter but I'm worried because the bamboo shrimp is a filter feeder it will make the water "too clean". Since its heavily planted there's always debris in the water I don't want to disturb this? Any thoughts? And if I do decide to upgrade should I run both side by side for a few weeks to seed or should I stick the new filter cartridge in with the old cartridge then just swap it out to seed?

 

[King puff]

For feeding the shrimp you could just use the small pieces of brine shrimp at the bottom of the cup after it is defrosted. You could also make fish food dust and make it flow into its "filters". There is really no thing as "too clean". The shrimp will just eat what he catches and definitely will not disturb the water quality.

Regarding the filter, you could just put the new filter in but put some of the debris that drip out of the old one into the new one to start it up with some bacteria. Adding a new filter should not be a problem as the tank already has bacteria in the gravel.

 

[NickAu]

The only problem is the Corys. They prefer sand or fine gravel so the can sift

Thats easy.

Go out and buy these.

Eat the chocolate

Take the lid and put it in your tank, wiggle it into to the gravel, Then fill with well washed play sand.

I did the same thing in my tank. Look at the left bottom where all the shrimp are.

 

[FroFro]

Thats easy.

Go out and buy these.

Eat the chocolate

Take the lid and put it in your tank, wiggle it into to the gravel, Then fill with well washed play sand.

I did the same thing in my tank. Look at the left bottom where all the shrimp are.

I never thought it could be used for that, but now would be a good time to buy one. The market near me is selling ones twice the size of normal for valentines day.

 

[NickAu]

Easy huh?