Abby256
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
HI!!! I need some help/advice.
OK, so we had a 10 gallon with platties/cory cats and upgraded to a 29 gallon. This was back in February. We cycled the 29 gallon and moved everybody in. A few months went by and we had a massive fungal outbreak that we believe came from a contaminated piece of driftwood and/or rock we bought from a locally owned mom & pop fish store. We threw out the offending decorations and began treating our tank but unfortunately lost most of our stock. We moved the two surviving platties and one surviving cory cat into a spare 10 gallon and decided to start over with the 29 gallon. We cycled, went to a planted tank and did a ton of research to gather up a stocking plan. I used Intelligent Aquarium Advisor and entered in my dimensions, both filter brand/sizes, did all of that. Put in an underwater areator (we only run at night so as not to upset the plants with too much oxygen), got my plants going (fertilized once a week and they are coming along nicely), purchased new driftwood, the whole nine yards. We put in our six zebra danios first and let them stay in the tank a month. We put our initial five tiger barbs into our cycled quarrantine tank. We quarrantined for a month and added them to the tank, did the bristlenose pleco and now have all but the remaining seven fish to add. They have been in quarrantine for a week now and have a few more weeks to go. So, here is my problem. I checked and double checked and entered my tank dimensions, filters, all of that into Intelligent Aquarium Advisor to come up with my numbers. Our total stocking plan was:
6 zebra danios
5 tiger barbs
5 green tiger barbs
2 albino tiger barbs
1 bristlenose pleco/catfish
Two or three different times I entered this into the calculator and each time came up with 98% stocked. I was well over on my filtration capacity but obviously I don't want a massive water change schedule (for lack of stability as well as for the extra work it would be) and I don't want these guys to be stressed out and overcrowded.
We have provided a lot of live plants, hiding spaces, driftwood, rocks, etc... but still I thought this sounded a bit much so I did triple check this calculation making my husband measure the tank twice. We have chosen one local store to buy all of our fish from and have only bought big name/big company backed drfitwood/rocks. I spoke with my local fish guy who has earned our trust very much due to his vast knowledge of fish/live plants/etc... and he took a look at my tank pictures and said that he didn't think that would be overstocked at all and that I should be more than fine. Well, I was thinking about putting some ghost shrimp in just to help with food on the bottom but I wanted to do my homework first. My fish guy wasn't in so I was planning on checking back with him later. First I wanted to check the bioload so I went to the calculator and it's changed on me!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's now telling me that my stocking level is at 118% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What is going on here? Has anyone had a similar experience!!! Any suggestions on whether my stocking level is OK or should I return two of the green tiger barbs I now have in quarrantine back to the store?
OK, so we had a 10 gallon with platties/cory cats and upgraded to a 29 gallon. This was back in February. We cycled the 29 gallon and moved everybody in. A few months went by and we had a massive fungal outbreak that we believe came from a contaminated piece of driftwood and/or rock we bought from a locally owned mom & pop fish store. We threw out the offending decorations and began treating our tank but unfortunately lost most of our stock. We moved the two surviving platties and one surviving cory cat into a spare 10 gallon and decided to start over with the 29 gallon. We cycled, went to a planted tank and did a ton of research to gather up a stocking plan. I used Intelligent Aquarium Advisor and entered in my dimensions, both filter brand/sizes, did all of that. Put in an underwater areator (we only run at night so as not to upset the plants with too much oxygen), got my plants going (fertilized once a week and they are coming along nicely), purchased new driftwood, the whole nine yards. We put in our six zebra danios first and let them stay in the tank a month. We put our initial five tiger barbs into our cycled quarrantine tank. We quarrantined for a month and added them to the tank, did the bristlenose pleco and now have all but the remaining seven fish to add. They have been in quarrantine for a week now and have a few more weeks to go. So, here is my problem. I checked and double checked and entered my tank dimensions, filters, all of that into Intelligent Aquarium Advisor to come up with my numbers. Our total stocking plan was:
6 zebra danios
5 tiger barbs
5 green tiger barbs
2 albino tiger barbs
1 bristlenose pleco/catfish
Two or three different times I entered this into the calculator and each time came up with 98% stocked. I was well over on my filtration capacity but obviously I don't want a massive water change schedule (for lack of stability as well as for the extra work it would be) and I don't want these guys to be stressed out and overcrowded.
We have provided a lot of live plants, hiding spaces, driftwood, rocks, etc... but still I thought this sounded a bit much so I did triple check this calculation making my husband measure the tank twice. We have chosen one local store to buy all of our fish from and have only bought big name/big company backed drfitwood/rocks. I spoke with my local fish guy who has earned our trust very much due to his vast knowledge of fish/live plants/etc... and he took a look at my tank pictures and said that he didn't think that would be overstocked at all and that I should be more than fine. Well, I was thinking about putting some ghost shrimp in just to help with food on the bottom but I wanted to do my homework first. My fish guy wasn't in so I was planning on checking back with him later. First I wanted to check the bioload so I went to the calculator and it's changed on me!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's now telling me that my stocking level is at 118% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What is going on here? Has anyone had a similar experience!!! Any suggestions on whether my stocking level is OK or should I return two of the green tiger barbs I now have in quarrantine back to the store?