I'm New, Hi

[chrisbassist]

ok,

in that case, how do you recognise when your tank is over stocked? It seemed a lot simpler to judge on inches per gallon,maybe that's why people use it...

what should I be on the lookout for when adding more stock? I'm guessing (and it is just a guess) that i should be watching for fish acting out of character, ammonia (or nitrate, nitrite or ph) spikes/changes, since more fish means more waste, and the ability of the tank/filter to cope with the waste will govern how many fish to an extent, and also if fish are acting out of character then it may mean they're stressed with not having space of their own... but what else should I be looking for? I think i'm more confused now than what I was.

Although I was thinking about pushing the 1 inch rule a bit after seeing another 2 inch rule... So I was thinking about going above the 1 inch slightly to 1.5 maybe, but your suggestions do look very tempting, and I may well just do what you've suggested.

The corys have also done a great job of scouring the bottom for bits of food the others have missed. although one is a little bit lazy, and will hitch a ride up the tank on the others back... (he can swim ok though, I have seen it, he's just being lazy). It also seems like the others all enjoying swimming against the current (I've found that with the filter in a corner facing down the longest part of the tank it creates a decent current, esp down the back of the tank, should help filter the water properly too with any luck) and thankfully the corys aren't as picky as the guppies and tetras, with flakes, most of the guppies completely ignore any of the pink flakes, and only go for the other colours, but the corys eat the pink ones fine...

 

[Wills]

Like I said every tank is pretty much down to an individual basis based on the fish that are in there. For example if you said you wanted to put a bristlenose plec and lets say a rainbow cichlid in there I would probably say loose the guppies get 6 slightly bigger tetras and cut the cories down to 6 as well. But because your sticking with small fish thats why I think its okay with this amount of fish. Im a bit surprised no one else has chipped into this as I think there are other members that would consider this a good stock as well.

With the inch per gallon rule I do use it to tot up numbers in a tank but I also take average size rather than max size as due to genetics your farmed fish like guppies and neons potentially wont reach absolute adult size as well as the fact that females are usually smaller as well see how its quite hard to balance fish against each other and the sizes stated on the net and in books. But then once Ive got to lets say 30 inches I take into account body size and shape, nature of the fish and activity levels and where they are active as well as filtration and then try and work out which direction to take. And in this case because of the fact all the fish are small low waste producing fish I felt it justified to go over and make schooling numbers more of a priority.

When it comes to adding fish I always post like a week in advance of me considering getting them and gather peoples opinions and justifications for if its a good idea or if its a bad idea and if its a mix of opinions just how varied a response it is if you see what I mean.

Also just a tip this section gets a bit less traffic than the new tank and tropical discussion section. So maybe post a similar thread there? See if you get a few more opinions on it there.

 

[chrisbassist]

Thanks for the help, and I may well set-up another thread over there.
I was just wondering what your thoughts were since you were the one suggesting it. I'm always happy to hear others opinions (especially if it means I can have more fish than I originally thought)

 

[Wills]

No thats okay more opinions are always a good thing. If it were my tank I would be happy for that set up in those numbers.

Wills

 

[chrisbassist]

just one more thing... (sorry)

with that set-up, going with the cockatoos (my wife like the look of them) how many would be ok? 1 or 2?

 

[Wills]

I would go for a trio or 1 male and 2 females. In a 3 foot tank 2 males will fight also they are more than likely to breed at some point and if its just one male and one female the single female gets pretty stressed and it can lead to nasty consequences so a trio works best for apistos in this size tank, in the wild it is often one male and a number of females he dots around to breed with.

 

[chrisbassist]

okay, just looked at the stocking thing on aqadvisor which puts that at 108% stocked and tells me to add more filtration...

I notice you don't like the site. But would I need to add filtration? At some point I'll want to upgrade it to make maintenance easier (plus I'll have a spare cycled filter to use in a second tank or quarantine tank) but until that point would I be OK just doing more water changes?

 

[Wills]

lol yeah its got its flaws and personally I think its doing a little more harm than good as it casts doubt over peoples experience as some people see it as a computer program so how can it be wrong but yeah its a good idea but I still think multiple experiences with fish do better than a single input machine.

With the filter the one that comes with the tank is a fluval U3 is that right? About 640 liters per hour or so? I would think thats okay but if you wanted to up filtration you could have a look at externals, I prefer them as they are usually more powerful than internals and also the canisters are bigger than internals as they dont have to worry about taking up room in the tank. Or when I had a 125 I used a U3 and a U2 and that coped well and I was keeping medium sized fish at the time so thats an other option but I do think that externals do look better as you just have two pipes in your tank rather than a box. And you can get what are called lily pipes as well which are made of glass and look better than the standard plastic stuff but thats upto you if you get them not essential but they are about £15 off ebay.

Wills

 

[NinjaSmurf]

I agree with Wills, aquadvisor, while trying to do a good thing, doesn't quite hold up. I've had quite the discussion on it recently, as it seems that having a very tall 30g tank with slight overfiltration is fully stocked at 11 guppies, but can house 26 neons at almost the same stocking precentage.

As to your stocking, you should be fine. If you can go for an external I'd do it.

 

[chrisbassist]

Cheers.

External filter won't be any time soon, but it is planned.`

i'm thinking aqadvisor is probably a great thing for newbies like myself to help prevent people overstocking their first tank, and as long as people still value experience and are prepared to trust someone who says they can do something different then it should be ok

 

[Wills]

i'm thinking aqadvisor is probably a great thing for newbies like myself to help prevent people overstocking their first tank, and as long as people still value experience and are prepared to trust someone who says they can do something different then it should be ok

Sums it up perfectly, the only other issue is when it bugs and people get some odd readings from it.

Good news about the external plans, its not urgent at present as I am pretty sure that the internal will be able to handle it, but it will improve things in my opinion. Just for future reference when you do move the filter over just put all your pads and bio media into the chambers of the new filter and add new foam as needed.

Wills

 

[chrisbassist]

I wasthinking about using them both while the new one build bacteria and stuff, would spreading out the media between the 2 help have them both running properly? so I can use the old filter on a new tank...

And good news (I think)

todays water test seems to indicate that the cycle is almost finished

looks like the ammonia is being processed nicely, nitrite is improving quite a lot and i'm sure that given another week it'll all be fine. And I tested today at about 24 hours since last water change (about the longest I could leave it doing water changes daily)

gonna get a syphon or something later hopefully, might make the changes easier, less messy and probably less stressful for fish.

 

[Wills]

Yeah syphons make it a lot easier, on your other thread I said about the big flexi buckets from BnQ. I used them on my 125 and worked out that the top of the sticker = 1/3rd of the tank takes about 10-20 mins all in all that way.

With the external, I would just run the external as the flow of that will be greater than that of the internal and the combined flow just wouldnt be needed. So you could just keep the internal for later use if (when) you get a second tank It also takes out the box from your tank.

Just a test to work out where your cycle is at, in the morning do a water change then test for ammonia and nitrite and then re test 12 hours later and that should give you an idea of where you are in the cycle.

Wills

 

[chrisbassist]

cheers.

just added a cave, nothing seems to have explored yet, but should hopefully be big enough for all the corys when I have a few more.

That does mean that I had to re-arrange a few bits though, so it kicked up a load of stuff from the substrate making it look cloudy. Hopefully "hoovering" the substrate when doing water changes will keep that section a bit cleaner.

I think the fish will probably explore a little bit more tonight, when the light is off so they relax. can't be nice having a giant hand come in and mess with your stuff.

also picked up a syphon today, mixed results with that. Made a bit of a mess on the first load of water, but the second load was better. learning curve comes with even the simplest bit of kit i suppose.

AND finally picked up some carbon for the filter. I've added some of that, but not as much as I'd like since the #40## bags and clamps are so bulky. even after cutting off most of the excess bag.

 

[chrisbassist]

hey been looking at filters, and would like your opinion if possible.

the cheapest while still having a decent flow rate and stuffI can ffind is this:
Eheim Professional II Aquarium Thermofilter 2126 - Freshwater

basically, fromwhat I've read people seem to trust the brand, and this is capable of an ADVERTISED (although maybe not quite) 350 litre tank...

will this also remove the need to have the heater in the tank?

If it will really do tank sizes that large (which I'm notlikely to need) be nice and easy to clean, heat the water sufficiently, etc, then it seems a bargain at £170ish