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Camescu

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Oct 13, 2013
Messages
354
Seems most advocate the use of Aqadvisor for stocking, and it seems pretty good. I have a question though...

Does it take into consideration if your tank is planted or not?

My thinking is that a planted tank will be able to help on the filtration side of things a bit.

For example.... my example. I have put in the details required and stocked to 100% for filtration capacity and 83% stocking capacity.

Now, my tanks is reasonably planted (about 18 low techs) tank and will probably be planting much more, including a moss carpet. Would this make a difference to the filtration capacity by lending a hand?
 
I think it could help in the reduction of nitrates buildup, which would allow you to have a slightly more spread out wcs. As far a filtration capacity, I think your turnover rate and media capacity have more pull on Aqadvisor's recommendation.

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Aqadvisors filtration capacity is a useless measurement. It also doesn't take bio load or nitrate production into consideration. It goes solely by the tank footprint.
 
It does not take plants into consideration. Plants can make a huge difference in your stocking capacity. I have two heavily planted tanks and even when Aqadvisor says they are 100% or more stocked, my nitrates stay so low I could go many weeks without a water change (I don't though, as I routinely do about 25% change each week to ten days to clean up the visible pleco and platy poop--man can they poop!--and "reset" the water to make sure there isn't a build-up of copper.) One really nice thing about a heavily-planted tank (beyond the obvious beauty and comfort of the fish) is that I can leave the tanks for a couple of weeks for vacation and not worry about nitrates building up.
 
I would like to add that nitrate production isn't the only reason for reasonable stocking levels. Moderately stocking your tank helps prevent disease outbreaks.
 
I am in total agreement with Mebbid! There are lots of reasons to do a 50% WC every 7 - 10 days. I won't go into the science. Just do it and you won't be sorry. OS.
 
Now this is interesting. So I could potential stock a couple more fish and still be under capacity.

What do you guys think? I've got a 200 litre tank. 100cm x 55 x 40

Planted

1x pearl gourami
2 x platy
8 x neon Tetra
6 x lemon tetra
6 x Schwartz Cory
6 x rainbow praecox
5 x amano shrimp

That has me at 83%. My readings are good. I do weekly 20-25% WC.

Could I feasibly put some dwarf chiclids like macmasters or similar in there? Aqadvisor says yes it would take me to 90something percent
 
I don't recommend stocking calculators because there are too many variables that go into successful stocking that can't be accounted for by a calculator. Feeding habits and area of tank primarily occupied are a couple of examples. I think calculators can be a good starting off point, but I see way too many people here that just take everything it says as gospel truth, probably because it provides instant gratification and they don't have to put much effort into stocking.

Your list looks fine, but you seem to have a lot going on there. You could probably get away with a pair of Apistogramma macmasteri, but I would not add anything else after that. Keep an eye on them at first, as Apistogramma can be shy when first added to the tank, and with all the other fish in there it may be difficult to get food to them at first.

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Cheers. Yeah. I used the calc to get an idea but in choosing the stocking I put way more thought into habitat needs.

I have caves for Cory and (if I get) Macmaster Dwarfs, open swimming for the rainbows and lots of plant, wood, rock cover at back and sides for all.

The mid to top layer is well accounted for and it's just the Corys that occupy the bottom. I believe the dwarf chiclids will also occupy lower mid to bottom.
 
Most definitely they will. I haven't kept macmasteri, but I have kept about 20 other species of Apistogramma as well as dwarf cichlids in several other genera. They're all pretty similar in terms of behavior and will all tend to stay toward the bottom of the tank.

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