What Do You Think Of This Stocking Plan?

[Colonel Dibble]

So I have a 180L Very Heavily Planted, Over-filtered, I am doing 10-20 percent water changes a week.
 
Currently have 12 Marbled Hatchets, 24 Cardinals, 6 Panda Corys, 2 Apistogrammas.
 
Might change to this, What do you guys think?
 
6 Hatchets, 8 Beckford Pencilfish, 12 Cardinals, 8 Lemon Tetra, 8 Corydoras and 1 Red Lizard Catfish, 2 Apistogrammas.
 

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

So I have a 180L Very Heavily Planted, Over-filtered, I am doing 10-20 percent water changes a week.
 
Currently have 12 Marbled Hatchets, 24 Cardinals, 6 Panda Corys, 2 Apistogrammas.
 
Might change to this, What do you guys think?
 
6 Hatchets, 8 Beckford Pencilfish, 12 Cardinals, 8 Lemon Tetra, 8 Corydoras and 1 Red Lizard Catfish, 2 Apistogrammas.
 

~220cm of adult fish in a 180l tank, approximately twice a reasonable stocking IMO.
 
What makes it worse is that considering the high stocking, you only do 10-20% water changes. All fish release ammonia, the more food you feed them the more they excrete. If the bacterial colonies can cope with this ammonia level and the consequent nitrite, this produces nitrate.
 
No amount of over-filtering will remove that nitrate, it is our job as fishkeepers to replace enough water so that the nitrate level does not get out of control. UK tap water comes with a legal maximum of 50ppm nitrate, the south coast comes with ~40ppm, my tanks get 50% changes as standard with stocking levels of no more than ~2.5cm per litre and once a month they get a ~75% change to prevent the nitrate levels creeping up.
 
Even liquid nitrate kits can give false readings, because reagents come out of solution. 

 

[Chad]

Personally I would drop the lemons and the pencil fish to bring it to a better stocking level.
 
That would still put 6 Hatchets, 12 Cardinals, 8 Corydoras and 1 Red Lizard Catfish, and 2 Apistogrammas in a 47 gallon tank.
 
Can you post a photo to show just how heavily planted the tank is?

 

[Colonel Dibble]

 

So I have a 180L Very Heavily Planted, Over-filtered, I am doing 10-20 percent water changes a week.
 
Currently have 12 Marbled Hatchets, 24 Cardinals, 6 Panda Corys, 2 Apistogrammas.
 
Might change to this, What do you guys think?
 
6 Hatchets, 8 Beckford Pencilfish, 12 Cardinals, 8 Lemon Tetra, 8 Corydoras and 1 Red Lizard Catfish, 2 Apistogrammas.
 

~220cm of adult fish in a 180l tank, approximately twice a reasonable stocking IMO.
 
What makes it worse is that considering the high stocking, you only do 10-20% water changes. All fish release ammonia, the more food you feed them the more they excrete. If the bacterial colonies can cope with this ammonia level and the consequent nitrite, this produces nitrate.
 
No amount of over-filtering will remove that nitrate, it is our job as fishkeepers to replace enough water so that the nitrate level does not get out of control. UK tap water comes with a legal maximum of 50ppm nitrate, the south coast comes with ~40ppm, my tanks get 50% changes as standard with stocking levels of no more than ~2.5cm per litre and once a month they get a ~75% change to prevent the nitrate levels creeping up.
 
Even liquid nitrate kits can give false readings, because reagents come out of solution. 
 

 
I have done Nitrate tests and they are all below 10 everytime I do them and I have only done 2, 10 Percent changes in two weeks.
 

Personally I would drop the lemons and the pencil fish to bring it to a better stocking level.
 
That would still put 6 Hatchets, 12 Cardinals, 8 Corydoras and 1 Red Lizard Catfish, and 2 Apistogrammas in a 47 gallon tank.
 
Can you post a photo to show just how heavily planted the tank is?

 
I already have more than that and my Nitrate is fine, my footprint is good so it seems all good to me.
 
I was mainly asking what you think of the Stock, keeping to my South American theme I thought that It does and will look really nice in the upcoming months/ years. Can't wait until it's fully mature.

 

[Colonel Dibble]

I have 50 Individual Strands of Hair Grass, 50 Straight Vallis, 20 Corkscrew Vallis, 20 Cabomba, 20 Red Root Floater, 10 Water Lettuce, 10 Various Crypts, 6 Red Serpent Vallis, 4 Amazon Swords and I also have 20 Hygrophila coming; The Red Kind.
 
Edit: HOW COULD I MISS THE 6 GIANT VALLIS IN THE MIDDLE?!
 
I can see quite a few Vallis Runners appearing too.
 

 

[Chad]

I was mainly asking what you think of the Stock...
 

That is what I think of it. I think it's too much.
 
Maybe wording the question differently would help, "I'm trying to keep with a South American theme. What do you think of these fish for that?"
 
It's just when you ask, "What Do You Think Of This Stocking Plan?" what I think is that it's not a good plan.
 
Planting does help for sure in terms nutrient level reduction.

 

[ncguppy830]

i feel like weve had this thread before....

 

[Chad]

i feel like weve had this thread before....

Be nice...

 

[ncguppy830]

im being nice im just saying dont fight.

like in the thread that got locked

 

[Colonel Dibble]

im being nice im just saying dont fight.

like in the thread that got locked

 
 
Who's fighting? I think the fish I want will show some nice colour and behaviour, and it's better then how I have it now, wouldn't you agree?

 

[ncguppy830]

nobody , it was just looking like the begging of the other thread....

 

[Chad]

I'm just trying to clarify the question so we can focus on the collection of fish rather than the environment they are kept in. Though at some point that's going to come up of course.

 

[Colonel Dibble]

I think the fish I want will show some nice colour and behaviour, and it's better then how I have it now, wouldn't you agree?

 

[Chad]

Yes. I do agree with that. It's a good combination of fish to me. I think it covers zones...had dither fish...and would be visually pleasing to the viewer.

 

[Elrohirthehasty]

You've only been out of cycle 2 weeks?  Or maybe I read that wrong.  But if indeed I read that correctly, then I suspect you may see a large spike in Nitrates.  Adding a bunch of fish will not instantly cause a massive buildup of nitrates, give it some time, and it will happen if you are overstocked.  Which you are.  

As for the stocking, they are a nice group of fish.  I like Apistos for sure.  As for the (potential/probable) overstocking, I'd just leave out one grouping and reduce the shoals from your idea and I'd say you could be mostly fine with diligent water changes.  For example:
 
6 Hatchets, 10 Cardinals, 6 Lemon Tetra, 6 Corydoras and 1 Red Lizard Catfish, 2 Apistogrammas = GOOD TO GO
6 Hatchets, 6 Beckford Pencilfish, 10 Cardinals, 6 Corydoras and 1 Red Lizard Catfish, 2 Apistogrammas = GOOD TO GO
6 Hatchets, 6 Beckford Pencilfish, 10 Cardinals, 6 Lemon Tetra, 6 Corydoras, 2 Apistogrammas = GOOD TO GO
 
Alternately, you could drop more species to increase the shoal sizes of others, but it sounds like you want lots of variety.  Again, all of those are a bit overstocked, but with consistent weekly 30%+ water changes, it's doable.  There's no harm in taking out more water - up to 50% - really so long as you keep the temp the same and declor etc.  If you're already siphoning/changing water weekly anyway, waiting and investing the extra 5 to 10 minutes is worth it.