Hi everyone! I am relatively new to this whole aquarium thing (and mostly spend my time lurking). Up until now I've just had two five gallon betta tanks, and a 2.5 gallon ghost shrimp tank. Recently, I set up and cycled a 20 gallon long because my mystery snail has gotten pretty large and I want to move him out of my 5 gallon betta tank. I also ordered some nerite snails for my two small tanks online and they sent me extra, so now I have too many and needed a better place for them to live as well. I am running a Fluval AquaClear 50, and the temperature is ~78 degrees (though my heater has a thermostat and I can go higher if needed).
I am trying to figure out what to stock the tank with, and I have found a metric ton of information on WHAT kind of fish.......but not how many. As I understand it, there is a difference between a long vs high tank with regards to the amount of fish you can keep in it because of the surface area of the water being 24" vs 30" from high to long.
I have seen a lot of people recommend aqadvisor on various forums around the web, but I have also seen a lot of people say that aqadvisor is a guide but is often incorrect. So here I am with this lovely tank, and I have no idea how many fish to put in it. I know that it's better for a tank to be understocked, so I tried to hit in the 70%ish area on aqadvisor while picking out the fish I'd like to keep in the tank.
Mostly, I guess I am just looking for validation on the numbers I have come up with. I want to make sure I do this right and don't stress the fish and have a bioload that is too much.
I came up with this:
1x mystery snail
3x nerite snail
5x zebra danio
8x neon tetra
6x black phantom tetra
According to aqadvisor, that puts my tank at 78% stocked with 161% filtration. Is that about accurate, or is it wrong? If it is wrong, how can I modify the list to be appropriate? I would like peaceful fish that will not bother my snails, and I was hoping to achieve at least the minimum number required for schools so the fish would be comfortable among their individual species and not stressed.
Any advice or tips would be appreciated!
I am trying to figure out what to stock the tank with, and I have found a metric ton of information on WHAT kind of fish.......but not how many. As I understand it, there is a difference between a long vs high tank with regards to the amount of fish you can keep in it because of the surface area of the water being 24" vs 30" from high to long.
I have seen a lot of people recommend aqadvisor on various forums around the web, but I have also seen a lot of people say that aqadvisor is a guide but is often incorrect. So here I am with this lovely tank, and I have no idea how many fish to put in it. I know that it's better for a tank to be understocked, so I tried to hit in the 70%ish area on aqadvisor while picking out the fish I'd like to keep in the tank.
Mostly, I guess I am just looking for validation on the numbers I have come up with. I want to make sure I do this right and don't stress the fish and have a bioload that is too much.
I came up with this:
1x mystery snail
3x nerite snail
5x zebra danio
8x neon tetra
6x black phantom tetra
According to aqadvisor, that puts my tank at 78% stocked with 161% filtration. Is that about accurate, or is it wrong? If it is wrong, how can I modify the list to be appropriate? I would like peaceful fish that will not bother my snails, and I was hoping to achieve at least the minimum number required for schools so the fish would be comfortable among their individual species and not stressed.
Any advice or tips would be appreciated!
