Tank Size

[Stevie8]

I have a book 'the bumper book of tropical fish keeping' by Dick Mills

His ideas regarding tank size and fish stocking, suggest the surface water area of the tank is a lot more important that the over all volume of the tank , most people on forums seem to quote the volume of the tank with no mention of surface area.

Both ways of working out fish stockage limits can be very different using both parimeters ?

i've scanned the page in question

 

[Stevie8]

Working on these parameters in the book, my tank with a 24' x 15' surface area isn't that 'massively' overstocked at the moment ? (see 'Rushed...' thread)

Not questioning anybodies advice on here, just trying to get my head around things

 

[backtotropical]

Surface area is more important than tank volume with regard to oxygenation. However, stocking is not entirely based around oxygenation. Other factors must be considered such as fish size, level of activity, aggression, compatability etc etc.

Stocking a tank is not a science but more of an art. There is no formula which can spell it out for you, only formulae which can guide you in roughly the right direction.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Surface area is taken into account. It's just generally assumed that people have a standard sized tank (ie, not 50ft long and 2ft deep but 1" wide), and those that don't (i.e, hex tanks, corner tanks, bowls etc) tend to say so.