Help me understand aqadvisor

[philipraposo198]

So I been playing around with this site and I really do like it. I understand this is a guide and not the end a be all of stocking.

I do have a question though.

It says that for one yoyo loach in my 75g that it will consume 15% of my stock.

The second added loach brings it up to 22%

Third at 29%

And 4 at 35%

8 at 78%

So how does this make sense? I would think in terms of waste it would scale equally. In terms of available space the numbers would be far better. As loaches are fine being in a group and are social. They each dont need their own cave / territory.

So are these numbers way off like I think. Or is this on par?

75g tank that's is almost fully stock with just 8 loaches seems way off to me.

Help me understand.

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[philipraposo198]

Another thing I tried which furthered my confusion. Adding 1 golden ram with the loaches on the list. AQ says the rams adds 2% more stock. But remove the loaches and keep the ram it now counts the ram as 10% stock.

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[Brookster123]

Seems as though it's all relative to what else is in the tank?? I can't make sense of the random exponential percentages with the loaches??

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[Delapool]

I can't add much there

I have found that for single species tanks (even schools), it can put up results that seem odd. That was about a year ago, not sure if changed. Mainly quite happy with the website.

On my own tank of mixed community fish I've found it works fairly well with what I thought, as well as (add bomb proof suit), a variant I use on ye olde inche per gallon'd rule.

 

[NigelK8485]

Aqadvisor tends to be conservative and like you said, it's not the golden rule you have to live by. They get their results through testing and other people's experiences. With the varying numbers, it's like stating "20 gallons for fish A, and then 10 gallons for each additional fish A." You're talking about 8 fish that could reach 6" all inhabiting the same level of a tank with a footprint of only 48x18".


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[philipraposo198]

the way I have been approaching my stocking in my tank is as follows.

rules:
1. ensure species that prefer to be in groups / schools have appropriate numbers.
2. ensure fish can meet temperature requirements of other fish (eg. all fish can thrive in 79-80 degrees)
3. same level of aggressiveness or close enough as to not have any conflict
4. divide tank in 3 main layers; top, middle, and bottom. ensure all layers are being used equally.
5. for larger fish (2+ inches) allow appropriate swimming length (6-8 times the length of the fish)
6. ensure nitrates per week are not building up extremely quick. Safe nitrates: generating 5-15ppm per week followed by 50% wc weekly. Sketchy nitrates: 20-40ppm per week. Dangerous nitrates: 50-100ppm a week.
7. its always best to get others opinions, hear why they would do things similar or different. constantly looking to improve the quality of living for your pets.

these rules are in no particular order but its things I always consider when picking fish or decided if I can fit more stock.