540 Litre Tank Stocking

[bala]

Tank:

5'x2'x2' (142 gallons)

150x60x60cm (540Litres)

Fish:

3x Bala Shark
4x ReedFish (Ropefish)
1x Gibbiceps Pleco (maybe 2, 1 for now)
1x Black Ghost Knife

-Optional if room and compatible:
2x Pictus Cat
2x Bristlenose Pleco (these may be to small and be eaten not sure)

Q1: Is this Over Stocked?
Q2: Are They Compatible with each other? (im sure they are but ill double check, excluding the optional)
Q3: 600Litre P/H Internal Filtration System Be Good Enough for this size Tank and Stock?

 

[arobinson1984]

A couple of main issues that stand out are:

1. Bala sharks require a 800L tank for full maturity and should be kept in groups of 4-6 and are quite often kept in species only tanks.

2. On a tank of your size you really need 2 good external filters. You want to be aiming at 5x turnover at least so at 540L you need to be looking at filtration of 2700L per hour whereas at the moment the filter is only turning over 1x per hour and thats before taking into account that you will lose some of that due to the media etc. Your internal filter will certainly struggle to cope and maintain a healthy tank as your 'messy' fish grow such as the plec.

Andy

 

[indigoj]

http/www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.php?g...erus&id=762

Lots of info on bala sharks - 3 is not a good group size and 5ft too small.

The filtration you suggest is nowhere near enough for a tank with a gibby in - you need a decent external - an FX5 ideally or 2x Tetratec EX1200, they are messy messy poo machines! (lovely though)

 

[arobinson1984]

Agree with indigo.

1 x FX5 would be fine
2 x tetratecs

Personally I'm an eheim guy so 2 eheims would be great although more expensive.

Andy

 

[bala]

oh k, cool cool, minus the bala sharks and i get external filter (like sugested) its ok

btw its 5ft long not tall , lol

 

[indigoj]

5ft long is still to small for balas. I think you need a 10ftx3ft tank - all the fish you love are huge! LOL

 

[bala]

haha yea love my big fish, hense the big tank, yea i know to smal for bala's just pointing out u said 5ft tal before just making sure u know its 5ft long ,

Fluval FX5....Expencive, but worth it its on the shopping list lol

 

[indigoj]

If you can find a 2nd hand fx5 you can get a good bargain - or 2 of any other big external that does minimum 1200lph

Is it BIG fish or ODD fish you like? There are plenty of unusual fish that max out at about 6-8" - What about a school of rainbows - the bigger ones would look stunning.

 

[bala]

these fish just apeel to me and also happen to be large fish, i love betta's and tetras, and sharks (rainbow albino redtails etc) these fish, ropefish, bala's, pleco's, especially the gibbiceps pleco (my favorite fish) are my favorite and ive done reasearch and they are compatible so i thought y not, one big tank with my favorite fish in it , going to be expencive but i dont care .

 

[Davo86]

Bala sharks will be fine in a 5x2x2, They only get to 13" fully grown and in this case will be the main centrepiece in the tank by the looks? 3-5 Sharks would be fine.

Reedfish and a BGK will also be fine, as would a Gibbiceps which due to their adult size of near 22" you would only want/need 1.

Also both the Pictus and Bristlenose will be fine with your other stock, although with a Gibbiceps you don't really need/want anymore plecs IMO

for a tank of this size you would be looking at filtration that is ideally around 2750LPH, although a FX5 at 2000LPH would be adequate

 

[arobinson1984]

Heres a link for a FX5 at quite a good price: Warehouse-Aquatics

Everywhere I've read says minimum of 800L for bala sharks and the link indigo posted before says 908L so I still dont agree the tanks big enough.

Andy

 

[bala]

Cheers Davo m and aribinson for the link

 

[Davo86]

With regard to that site, two fish that are just as active and get to the same size, but are quicker growers, and much bulkier fish, apparently require smaller tanks according to the site?

Flagtail
Tinfoil

Now obviously the bigger tank the better, but a tank almost 5x longer than the fish and 2x wider is perfectly sufficient IMO