Stocking question

[Nemo2182]

Morning (afternoon) folks

The millon dollar question that I expect has been argued and creates a divide wherever its posted....

So Im soon to take ownership of a Waterbox AIO 65.4. A little miss leading, as once you take the rear filter box and internal dimensions into the equation, its more like a 50 gal than 65 gal

Ive been putting together my new wishlist for stocking following a inch per gallon rule

Ive decided I would like to continue with freshwater nanos, and my list is as follows

12 x Corydora Habrosus
10 x Neons
10 x Harlequin Rasbora
6 x Endler
4 x Otocinclus

Based on the above with the 1 inch = 1 gallon rule it equals 70 gallons

I know people will no tell me some fish have different requirements, but ive mastered this with running guppies with corydora habrosus, as both species are different ends of requirements, so I have met in middle and all is good

I plan to "over filter" and run a powerhead to help remove waste off the bottom of tank

I currently run a 12 gal fluval edge, and this is stocked with

5 x endler
5 x neon
8 x corydora habrosus

The above = 27 gallons, yet my water para are perfect, my waste is minimal and can even get away with fortnightly water changes... fish have space and are very active, colourful and seem content. Me and the fam obviously get a very active tank

The question is, following the 1 inch rule I am overstocked by more than double. With that in mind, taking the waterbox to 70gallons of stocking in a 50 gallon tank seems reasonable?

I am interested to see the responses. Please bare in mind I have a low tech scape, and intend to do same in waterbox. I am always trying to create an environment which suits all my inhabitants, as I want them to be living there best life in there...

Thanks in advance and be nice....Ive learnt a lot in two years of the hobby, so only constructive advice is needed

Nathan

 

[Rocky998]

It doesmt matter if you are "experienced" or a "newbie", you should never have to keep a hard water fish with a soft water fish or vice-versa. One other thing, the inch per gallon rule is "OK" as long as you follow the whole rule which is: "Inch of fish per gallon as lomg as they are slender bodied fish". I may not have quoted it exactly word to word but its still the exact same meaning... A better "rough calculation" would be Aqadvisor which provides a better result than the inch per gallon rule. But it does also have some flaws so ALWAYS do your own home work and dont rely on technology alone.

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

Read this about the one inch per gallon rule. I don’t use it at all. Your stocking seems fine besides the soft water oto’s. We need to know your filter as well. What does ‘overfilter’ mean? What’s your ph?

The "one inch per gallon" rule

This is something that comes up fairly often and is rather misunderstood therefore I will attempt to clarify the original meaning of the general guideline of "one inch of fish per gallon of water". This is a suggested guideline for a well maintained and filtered tank. It does not apply to...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

 

[Essjay]

From what Emeraldking told me, endlers are OK in the upper end of soft but not very soft water. Looking back through your posts I see you have very hard water but mix t with RO. What GH will you be keeping this tank at?


As for the otos, I would get more in a tank this size - but not until the tank has grown enough algae for them. Most otos won't eat anything but a particular species of algae at first; some will learn to eat eat other things but others never do.

 

[Nemo2182]

It doesmt matter if you are "experienced" or a "newbie", you should never have to keep a hard water fish with a soft water fish or vice-versa. One other thing, the inch per gallon rule is "OK" as long as you follow the whole rule which is: "Inch of fish per gallon as lomg as they are slender bodied fish". I may not have quoted it exactly word to word but its still the exact same meaning... A better "rough calculation" would be Aqadvisor which provides a better result than the inch per gallon rule. But it does also have some flaws so ALWAYS do your own home work and dont rely on technology alone.

From what Emeraldking told me, endlers are OK in the upper end of soft but not very soft water. Looking back through your posts I see you have very hard water but mix t with RO. What GH will you be keeping this tank at?


As for the otos, I would get more in a tank this size - but not until the tank has grown enough algae for them. Most otos won't eat anything but a particular species of algae at first; some will learn to eat eat other things but others never do.

 

[Rocky998]

Yes, he said ENDLERS are basically semi-ok with softness but not all fish are like that. I am just recommending that you do not try to "mix and match" fish from different water chemistries. Its never good for the other fish. It can and most likely will lead to health issues.

 

[Nemo2182]

So for those of you I have spoke to previously, I made a mistake early doors with guppies and habrosus. BUT i worked on a happy medium between the two, finding a GH of 9-10 seemed to suit both fish when doing my research. I have to admit, i expected otocinclus to be on same hardness as habrosus, but i would of obviously do the research before buying, as it was merely a wishlist. Reason for otocinclus was to replace nerite snail I got ride of.

 

[Essjay]

Otos and habrosus cories do need the same hardness - it's endlers that may need harder water than your tank.
With otos it's the need for algae in the tank before they are bought to make sure they have something to eat in case they won't eat anything else.

 

[Nemo2182]

Otos and habrosus cories do need the same hardness - it's endlers that may need harder water than your tank.
With otos it's the need for algae in the tank before they are bought to make sure they have something to eat in case they won't eat anything else.

Ok cool, i may not even have a need for them as new tank location should provide no direct sunlight. I intend to have more plants which should starve out what algae needs. That said, i wont know until a couple months down the line.

I think endlers have quite a wide GH range

GH value: approx. 8-15°dH

 

[Nemo2182]

This will be the scape, minus the plants. Im going simple with Java's

 

[threecharacters]

The inch per gallon rule is horrible, don't use it. Stocking is much more complex than the inch per gallon rule would indicate. Use aqadvisor.com as a first guess for stocking, it uses a more complex stocking algorithm. With 36x18x18 dimensions (50 gal) and your above stocking list minus the otos (more on this in a bit) aqadvisor says your tank is about half stocked. You could definitely have more fish. Note that 100% on aqadvisor is a tankbusting stocking. I would suggest keeping the stocking slightly below 100%. You could start with the stocking you have listed and add more over time. If the tank starts looking "full", and you start developing significant amounts of nitrate on a weekly basis, your tank is done being stocked.

For algae maintenance: Algae will always be present in aquariums, there is no way to get rid of it all. Large algae blooms are failing of aquarium maintenance, lighting, and fertilizing, not a failing of stocking. It is generally not a great idea to rely on a fish to clean up algae in an aquarium. I would not get otos if you are just getting them for algae clean up. Otos are quite delicate, and they need a well-established tank with lots of biofilm and algae already growing. If you do want a clean up crew to help with algae maintenance, I would suggest shrimp. In my experience, cherry shrimp or amano shrimp are, by far, the most efficient and aggressive algae eaters.

The fish you will get are probably generations removed from wild water conditions. They are probably going to be fine in your water.

Java Fern are very slow growing. They will not be able to out-compete algae.

 

[Nemo2182]

Ok, based on your info above I think I will remove otos from my list. Thanks for the info on Aqadvisor, I will check that out as I was hoping to include cherry barbs originally but dropped them due to high inch per gallon I was getting.

Someone earlier asked me about pump. I will be running a Sicce Syncra SDC 6.0, capable of 2000-5500 litres per hour, so when I say 'overfilter' is the fact that I @ 10 x volume, I prob only need 2500

Any other recommendations on nano fish that would work with the others in my list?

 

[Nemo2182]

So measuring the inside of the actual tank only gives me 191L as opposed to advertised 249L. O well, still happy with what AqAdvisor have quoted @ 80% stock level

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

That is too many shrimp and fish, imo. That’s 82 aquatic animals in a small tank.

 

[threecharacters]

That is too many shrimp and fish, imo. That’s 82 aquatic animals in a small tank.

It's hardly fair to include the cherry shrimp in that calc. You could keep 30 cherries in a 10 gallon comfortably. I had an unfiltered 3 gallon bowl with maybe 15 cherry shrimp in it no problem. 52 fish in a 50 gallon tank isn't too bad. One thing I do notice about this stocking list is most of the fish are midwater.