Tank volume vs. water surface area

[catwoman]

I bought a 37H tank hoping to stock it with 37in of fish but I read somwhere that you should go by water surface area instead of volume because of the gas exchange area. If I go by that then I can't have very many fish in 37H as it is tall and narrow - same aurface area as a 20L. How important is the surface area criteria vs the tank volume? Too late to change it now. I am almost through my fishless cycle.

 

[tstenback]

It is very important for the reason you stated. However, you can make up for the lack of surface area with strong, efficient filtration and diligent tank maintenance. Agaian it will mostly depend on the type of fish that you are going to keep and the amount of waste they produce and space they require. Keep us posted

 

[Bol]

As Terry hinted at, those are both 'rules of thumb', and not set-in-stone 'rules', since there are so many variables involved. Start kind of light, and as you add fish (and monitor your toxin levels), you'll most likely get a feel for how your particular tank is doing.

Also, with a tall tank like yours, I'd suggest taking advantage of the height by getting a good mix of fish; that is, get a few top-dwellers, some mid-range fish, and some bottom-dwellers.

 

[catwoman]

I have an eclipse hood with a retro-fitted 65watt power compact light in it and I will be trying to grow some plants - low maintenance variety. I will also have co2 injection controlled by a ph monitor. I can add an external or internal canister type filter if I have too eventually. I guess I have money to burn on a new hobby. Will the plants help the fish loading? The fish I have waiting to go in right now are two Siamese Algae Eaters, an Apisto Cacatuoids, and two clown plecos. I wanted to get additionally a small school of cardinals, a small school of marbled hatchets, and two corys. Are the clown plecos of any value to this mix? I rarely see them in the 10gal tank. I would think the cory's would be a more useful addition. I was trying to stay with the south american theme except for the SAE's which I wanted for algae maintenance (we added 5 of these guys to our 100gal tank and all the ugly algae on the plants disappeared in a week and the plants started growing!). In hind sight, I should have gone for a 40gal cube type tank. Oh. well.

 

[Bol]

The plants will surely help with the tank's "health", as they'll soak up ammonia and nitrates, and provide more oxygen (which will help offset the most often cited problem with tall tanks -- low water oxygen levels). Assuming you're talking medium- to heavily-planted, of course, but with plans for a controlled CO2 injection system, I doubt you're talking about having only two or three plants.

Just for info (i.e. your mileage may vary) I've got a couple of 20 gallon "high" tanks, fairly heavily planted (at about 1 wpg), that are doing splendidly with fish stocking levels that easily break any 'rule' I've read.

Are the clown plecos of any value to this mix?

In my opinion, only aesthetically. I'll state up front that I'm not a big fan of plecos, and have very limited experience with them, but ...

I could be wrong, but as far as I know, clown plecos are wood-eaters (so they'll probably need driftwood), don't eat algae, and probably don't 'scavenge' much. Plus, they're real Feces Factories, which will put a heavier load on your filtration. The SAEs will probably take care of most algae, and cories are excellent bottom cleaners. Personally, with two SAEs, I would opt for four or five cories instead of the plecos.

Also, in my opinion, a planted tank with the fish load you listed would almost certainly be fine, with the possible exception of the plecos.

 

[catwoman]

Thanks a bunch for all the advice. The plecos are going in the 100 gal tank and I'll probably never see them again There is wood for them in there and they have wood now in the 10 gal - they never stray far from it. Corys are cuter anyway.

 

[yhbae]

Heavily planted tanks help for sure. Most of my tanks produce very low levels of even nitrates due to abundant presence of plants.

I used to do weekly water change, but I switched to every 2 weeks with absolutely no problem so far.