Hi Im New - 250l Liverbearer Tank Advice

[dazsmith69]

Hi im pretty new here, got my rena 200 aqualife setup and fully cycled and the xp3 filter on which is built for 300l-500l tanks to improve the quality of water and enable me to stock more fish (with additional water changes) , ive currently got a shoal of albino corys for the bottom (6) and a mixture of platys and mollies for the middle/lower region of the tank (12), i want to create a collage of yellows and reds and was wondering if anyone could advise me of how many i can have in my tank comfortably as it looks very empty at the moment! also thinking of putting a betta in to control the fish population and a few panchax for the upper level, and maybe some shrimp.

your help is much appreciated

thanks Darren

 

[OldMan47]

You could probably get away with another 8 to 12 fish the size of the platies with no real trouble. The added filtration does not really allow you extra fish but will help not have cloudy water with the fish stirring things up off the bottom. If you start heavy fish loading, the limiting factor will become water quality. As long as you measure your ammonia and find none and you can change enough water to keep nitrates below 20 ppm (that's 20mg/l) your fish will be OK. The more fish you have, the more often and larger your water changes will become. If your build up is slow enough, you will never see ammonia or nitrites but nitrates will build faster with more fish.

 

[dazsmith69]

You could probably get away with another 8 to 12 fish the size of the platies with no real trouble. The added filtration does not really allow you extra fish but will help not have cloudy water with the fish stirring things up off the bottom. If you start heavy fish loading, the limiting factor will become water quality. As long as you measure your ammonia and find none and you can change enough water to keep nitrates below 20 ppm (that's 20mg/l) your fish will be OK. The more fish you have, the more often and larger your water changes will become. If your build up is slow enough, you will never see ammonia or nitrites but nitrates will build faster with more fish.

thanks very much for that, i test the water frequntly to see if any buuild ups occur so i shoud be ok for another 10 platies

thanks again

Darren