Stocking My 55

[fellfrosch]

Ok, so here's what I have:

55 gallon freshwater (the shorter in height be deeper front to back one. about 208.2 liters)
Sand Substrate
Some plants (adding more. just need a diffuser for my co2 system I just bought off Craigslist)
6 Peppered Cory's (all young)
1 Emerald Green Cory (older)
6 Black Neon Tetras (5 young, 1 old)
1 Marble Angelfish (young)
3 Otocinclus
8 Ghost Shrimp
6+ Trumpet Snails

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Here is what i am getting:

6 Kuhli Loaches (to stir the sand, and i like how they look)
1 Male Neon Blue Dwarf Gourami
2 Female Neon Blue Dwarf Gouramis

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Only defenses of choices so far:

I know gouramis and angelfish can be iffy together. I plan on watching them carefully. I also plan on having LOTS of hiding places asap, and eventually building a bigger tank (its surprisingly not that hard...)
Also I dont want to get more emerald corys as I'd like a lil more variation to my tank. This poor guy is one of 2 fish left over from my first tank after letting an ex friend take care of my tank while i was out of town. Came home and the cory and a single tetra were all that were left. =-(

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Questions:

First question: How much room do i have to add more here? If i go by the 1" per gallon (adult size) im fully if not going to be overstocked (if you count the sand taking up volume, and the fish I am adding).
But what is confusing me is I found this post on here and it sounds like this person is actually fully stocked if he got those fish, but everyone is telling him to up the amount of corys and tetras

Second question: If i CAN add more, how many? The tank looks fairly empty right now (to me at least). I want/need to get some algae eaters asap as a bunch of red surface algae has started while i was on vacation (on glass and decorations). I know the trumpet snails eat algae, but not enough...

Third question: After researching algae eaters i decided id want 1 Albino bristlenose pleco, and at least 2 siamese algae eaters to go with the 3 otocinclus i have. If i can add more than whats above the questions, would these be ok? More or Less?

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Sorry to bombard you with all these questions. While im not new to having fish at all, I am still new to having a tank that gives me more choices on variety and quantity of fish (I'm slightly overwhelmed and sometime disappointed by the compatibility/incompatibility of so many fish). My old tank was a 10g with 2 corys (one of them the emerald in my current tank) a small school of tetras, and a single pleco. Yes i now know about the pleco. Please no bashing me...

 

[fellfrosch]

bump

 

[synodontismultipunctatus]

A few things id mention firstly is that the angel fish will reall appreciate deeper aquariums because of their shape, should be fine as long as its hieght is more than 18 inches.
Another thing id say is you want to be careful nit to over stock your tank with a CO2 diffuser. with too many fish oxygen levels will quickly drop.
Question 1. I wouldnt be able to say how much more you can stock the whole inch per gallon method is only a rough guideline! Without knowing what filtration you have an what maintinance you expect to be doing i couldnt tell you how much more space you have
Question 2. Personally i would up the numbers of tetras and ottocinclus before adding any other types of fish in. 200 litres is a fairly large aquarium for community fish but i wouldnt go crazy, about five more tetras and 3 more ottos for now.
Question 3. You could easily fit in an ancistrus with no issues but i would reccomend more ottos rather than algae eaters, the ottos would be happier in a larger group and the algae eaters get pretty big!
Ps the gourami should be fine with the angels, the only thing its really likely to attack is the females, ive kept many gouramis before with angel and had no problems what so ever. There may be some aggresion but all fish are different.

Another thing i will say is all this is based on my opinion, i have a lot of experience with community aquariums but its worth asking a few others for their ideas.
Good luck mate!

 

[fluttermoth]

I'd agree with syno's post.

You can stock more if you stick to the same species than if you mix and match, as sholaers stick together and aren't competeing for space as they would be if you added something differenrt.

Also, the 'happiness' of current fish should take priority over potential future fish, and in practice that often means upping shoals. Don't forget the many of those fish live in groups of hundreds or even thousands in the wild, the oft quoted '6+' is a very poor substitute for a 'proper' (which would be at least a dozen, and preferably 18, IMO) group.