55G Stocking Suggestions

[Faffer]

Hi

I am a fairly new aquarium owner and I have a lightly planted Rena Aqualife 200 tank that has been stable at 7.5pH, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 10 nitrate for the last 4 days.

There are currently 5 guppies and one Chinese algae eater living in it, which can all be relocated to another tank if needed.

My original plan was to stock it with the following:

3 South American Puffers
3 Silver Sharks
a shoal of around 20 zebra danios or other shoaling dither fish (suggestions welcome)
shrimps, or some other interesting crustaceans (again, open to suggestions)

Now, after doing a bit more research, I realise the tank isn't really big enough for the sharks.

Are there any other fish that are similar to the silver sharks but do not grow as large?

Would the livestock be compatible?

Thanks

 

[plecostomus-mad]

Hi

I am a fairly new aquarium owner and I have a lightly planted Rena Aqualife 200 tank that has been stable at 7.5pH, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 10 nitrate for the last 4 days.

There are currently 5 guppies and one Chinese algae eater living in it, which can all be relocated to another tank if needed.

My original plan was to stock it with the following:

3 South American Puffers
3 Silver Sharks
a shoal of around 20 zebra danios or other shoaling dither fish (suggestions welcome)
shrimps, or some other interesting crustaceans (again, open to suggestions)

Now, after doing a bit more research, I realise the tank isn't really big enough for the sharks.

Are there any other fish that are similar to the silver sharks but do not grow as large?

Would the livestock be compatible?

Thanks

the smaller red tailed sharks are what come to mind but im not sure they are compatible with the puffers and im very sure they would enjoy the danios for supper. anything with ''shark '' in the name would make me think they are predators? so if thats the kinda fish you want, id stay away from danios and such fish as they will most likely end up as live food.i might be wrong so ask about a little more.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Faffer.
I am reading that the tank has been stable with 6 fish in it for 4 days. How long has the tank been set up and how did you go about preparing it for the fish? I suspect that you may be facing a fish-in cycle but you have not given us enough information to determine whether that is the case.

 

[Faffer]

Hi again.

The tank had been fishless cycling for 3 weeks prior to adding the fish, but with plants and wood in it. I added a few fish flakes a day for the first couple of days of cycling then stopped adding, as there were bits of plant floating about, so I left them in to simulate waste/ammonia. I have seen the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels go up and back down again during that period.

The nitrate level has also gone down from 20 a week ago to the current 10, possibly due to the plants using it? There are also a few snails, which look like bladder/tadpole/pouch snails.

 

[mattlee]

agree with oldman, how was the tank cycled.....?
looks good though, cracking piece of bogwood
puffers are very messy fish and add quite a big amount to the bioload and normally kept in a species tank but having never kept them i wouldnt like to say for sure
i know they are very common but i dont think you can beat a nice sized group of neon/cardinal tetras, but these need to be added to a very stable mature tank maybe add them in a few months to get the tank established first as they are sensitive fish. if you like them that is

 

[waterdrop]

If you measure zero ppm ammonia and zero ppm nitrite(NO2) once a day for the next week or so I'd say the biofilter is pretty stable. Assume you are using a good liquid-reagent based test kit?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[drobbyb]

The tank is too small for silver sharks. They can reach 14 inches, like to be in groups, and need a tank at least 6 feet in length. I wish they could be kept in smaller aquaria, but for the long term it just isn't recommended.

As the others have stated, if you add all your fish at once you could be facing a fish in cycling situation. You don't want to introduce more than 30% of your current stocking at one time as adding more would surely put you in a mini cycle.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, listen to Robby, he knows his stocking!

And I'd go a step farther and say that its not clear this biofilter is even qualified at a "fragile" level yet, much less ready for any fish additions. That's why I was saying it needs to be watched for another week.. then at that stage it might be ready for smaller additions -- I think the 30% of current stock would go better with a more mature biofilter, say after 6 months or a year.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Faffer]

Thanks for the replies.

I am using the API Freshwater Master Test Kit.

The filter is a Rena Filstar Xp2 with some Fluval Biomax rings in the empty tray. There's still about 1/3 space left in the Biomax tray so I may stuff a bit more bio media in there.

I was not intending to add all the fish at once...which leads me to another question:

In which order should I add fish to the tank? I assume I should add the least aggressive, ie. the small, shoaling fish first. Is this correct? Should I add the whole shoal of 20ish fish at once, or split them up into weekly intervals?

 

[mattlee]

as you dont know what your filter has cycled up to in terms of how much ammonia it can rid (ppm) i would take it very cautious when adding fish and still only add a few at a time and check the water stats for a few days.
did you test the ammonia ppm when cycling? as when using household ammonia people usually dose to 4ppm which is more than adequate to contain most stockings ammonia levels, which means the filter is ready to be fully stocked. if you dont know what ppm your filter can handle then as i said add with caution.
3 weeks seems quite a fast cycle too but as long as your sure its cycled and its been showing 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites for a few days while still adding the ammonia source (fishfood) then you should be ok to add some fish......... i think...... im not 100% convinced its cycled thats why im being a bit sketchy....!
i appologise if it is but it just sounds very quick for a complete cycle and the fish food will have to start decaying before it gives off any ammonia making it longer before there is an ammonia source compared to a bottle of ammonia with instant impact...

 

[Faffer]

No need to apologise!

I think it probably has enough bacteria for it's current, light stock, but I will continue to monitor for a few more days and then add the fish, spread over the course of a few more weeks, if the water tests are good.

 

[mattlee]

No need to apologise!

I think it probably has enough bacteria for it's current, light stock, but I will continue to monitor for a few more days and then add the fish, spread over the course of a few more weeks, if the water tests are good.

the thing is with the cycle is that you need 2 types of bacteria and it takes time to produce the ammonia depleting bacteria and then more time to produce the nitrite depleting bacteria. there is normally a nitrite spike halfway through the cycle. only when both read 0 for a few days with the same supply of ammonia and nitrates show you know its complete, although nitrates can be in tap water, mine is 10ppm, so dont just rely on the showing of nitrates to be cycled....
3 weeks for a cycle seems too short to me, you may have the bacteria for ammonia but have you had an nitrite spike on your tests and reduced that to 0 like the ammonia?

 

[Faffer]

Yes, the nitrites did go up to 1 ppm for a couple of days, then gradually dropped back down to 0 over the next 3 days, and ammonia and nitrites have stayed at 0, even after adding the fish. The nitrates have also actually gone down from 20 to 10 since adding the fish. Maybe the plants are helping to keep the water stable. I've been keeping the lights on for around 12 hours a day.

 

[mattlee]

Yes, the nitrites did go up to 1 ppm for a couple of days, then gradually dropped back down to 0 over the next 3 days, and ammonia and nitrites have stayed at 0, even after adding the fish. The nitrates have also actually gone down from 20 to 10 since adding the fish. Maybe the plants are helping to keep the water stable. I've been keeping the lights on for around 12 hours a day.

a nitrite spike normally goes off the chart well above 1ppm

 

[Faffer]

Even though I've never manually added pure ammonia? My ammonia level never went above 1ppm during cycling neither.