Stocking my 20 long

[Tlouzuzu]

So ive been in the hobby for a little over a year and ive taken a huge direction into diy.

We built a cabinet to house 2 20 long displays with a 20 long sump tank hidden in the bottom. Overflows are established with a 550 gph water pump back to the the top and everything goes down accordingly.

The tank im gonna stock is planted with seiryu rock and good soil (cant remember the name and im not home atm). Havent decided on plants but the system will be CO2 injected at the sump.

My idea includes about 11 dwarf neon rainbows, 1 pearl gourami, and maybe 10 cherry shrimp or color (clean up as well). Not going to introduce everything at once.

I am mainly just curious to see if the stocking is too much or there might be some unforeseeable issues i am unaware of.

Aqadvisor put me at 88% capacity with a stable community and good filtration (i set it to 80 gph knowing i have more but to be safe).

All feedback is appreciated, thank you for reading!

 

[King Fisher]

Stocking sounds good. If you are running 80gph in a single 20g I'd say you could easily double that.

 

[Tlouzuzu]

Sweet, i dont wanna go to high with it and have a crowded tank but i might add a few extra rainbows in so i can try for the 1:2 male:female ratio to get the best color out of them

 

[King Fisher]

I generally always run a minimum of 10x the tank turnover an hour.

 

[Tlouzuzu]

I generally always run a minimum of 10x the tank turnover an hour.

Are you saying if its a 20 gallon you run at least 200 gph of filtration?

 

[King Fisher]

Yes that's correct. But you would be running 8x tank turnover an hour if you doubled what you currently have so that's alright IMO.

 

[Tlouzuzu]

Thats kind of how we are set up, using a 550 gph water pump for qbout 55 gallons of water. Making sure the flow rates on the returns and the overflows have enough flow rate.

 

[King Fisher]

Right. I think you're spot on with filtration. You might even lose a little bit of GPH once you add filter media and depending on the distance the water has to travel during circulation.

 

[Tlouzuzu]

Kinda did already, so instead of pvc i went with a hose to help out. I will post pictures of it all when its all set up.

I really do appreciate the feed back, its calm of mind.

If you have any other tips im happy to hear them

 

[King Fisher]

My knowledge is very limited with sumps. Lol. I use canisters, HOB's, and air pumps.

One more question.....is the fish stocking you listed for just one of the 20g tanks? Or are you stocking both 20's with the same fish?

 

[Tlouzuzu]

My knowledge is very limited with sumps. Lol. I use canisters, HOB's, and air pumps.

One more question.....is the fish stocking you listed for just one of the 20g tanks? Or are you stocking both 20's with the same fish?

Just one, the other one is going to be shell dwelling cichlids. They dont really match water parameters perfectly but he really wants to do that regardless if the parameters are fit for the cichlids.

 

[King Fisher]

Are you talking African Cichlids?

 

[Tlouzuzu]

Are you talking African Cichlids?

Yes, 2 different tanks. I know the water is gonna be a couple degrees cooler than they need but he doesnt really care. Gonna try it anyway.

 

[King Fisher]

I don't see why you couldn't keep your tanks at 77-78 degrees with all the fish you have plus the Cichlids.

 

[Fresh2o]

This sounds like an interesting project. 20g long has a decent footprint and they are shallow.
Since you are injecting CO2, there are some modifications you can make to the sump to minimize CO2 loss via degassing. Basically, you’ll want to reduce splashing and dripping in the main drain from the tank and in the sump body.

 

[Tlouzuzu]

I don't see why you couldn't keep your tanks at 77-78 degrees with all the fish you have plus the Cichlids.

Im not foreseeing any illnesses but he wants fry to really establish its community. Keeping them will be fine, he just might not get any fry. But, we will see.

 

[King Fisher]

Once those Africans pair up and breed in a 20g watch out!! Lol. They'll attack everything. Probably good they won't breed. Unless you were gonna just keep one pair with no other fish.

 

[Tlouzuzu]

Once those Africans pair up and breed in a 20g watch out!! Lol. They'll attack everything. Probably good they won't breed. Unless you were gonna just keep one pair with no other fish.

Its going to be a single species tank. We could use some of em for feeder fish if they do breed too. We got a 75 with a friends 5" cichlid that murders everything. So we call her Murderfish.

 

[King Fisher]

Lol. I believe that. It's why you really overstock an African tank.

Africans will attack their own species when paired up and breeding. Even the third wheel female if you are doing a 1 male to 2 female ratio.

 

[Tlouzuzu]

Lol. I believe that. It's why you really overstock an African tank.

Africans will attack their own species when paired up and breeding. Even the third wheel female if you are doing a 1 male to 2 female ratio.

I will keep that in mind when stocking. Thanks!