Just Thought - Am I Overstocked?

Harlequins · Oct 22, 2009

My tank is 48x15x18h ,55 us gal.48 uk gal.
Filtration tetratec externals x2 ex700 & ex1200,

Fish;
10 Harlequins
6 platies
6 guppies
6 silvertip tetras
7 Cory trilineatus (4 very small at the moment)
& around 10 platy juvis around 6 weeks old(these to be removed soon)

The harleys and platies i've had since july,original tank 20 gal was set up may this year,upgraded aug 2nd to this current tank.
Water stats ammonia 0/nitrite 0/nitrate 30(tap 10),ph 7.8,due weekly w/c tomorrow at 30 %

I was wondering if i was overstocked? if i stick to the inch rule yes i am,but can i get away with it on the filtration side,and the fish aren't hugely messy.

Any help?

JustKia · Oct 22, 2009

If I remember right that's 700lph and 1200lph? So 1900lph or about (theoretically) 500gph or 9x turnover.
How mature is the filter? Oops just noticed since May, so not quite 6 months.

Rasbora's 1.75" x 10 = 17.5"
Platies 2" x 6 = 12"
Guppies 2.5" x 6 = 15"
Tetras 2" x 6 = 12"
Cories 2.5" x 7 = 17.5"
I'll not count the juvvies if they're soon to be removed.
So you're looking at about 74" of fish.

Personally, I don't see a problem with it and if you were to give the filter a few more months of maturing I'd even say you could add more - another small school of say tetras, cories, etc or just up the number of each of what you have already.