How many fish is too any in a 55 gal tank?

[Tom Pearl]

I have 62 fish - 30 small schooling fish(rummynoses, HY 511's and lambchop rasboras) 8 oto's, 3 SAE, 8 cories, 4 Gouramis, 3 Boesemani rainbows, a pair of red wag swordtails,1 Angel, 1 redtail shark,1 black kuhli loach , 1 Kubotai Loach in a heavily planted tank.
Weekly 33% WC with an Eheim 65 canister filter. The tank looks great but I want to add a couple more rainbows and maybe a Pleco. Any thoughts?


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[Alexwm125]

Sounds pretty overstocked to me. Try aqadvisor (stocking generator) and see what it says about your current stock.

http://aqadvisor.com


I love my fish!!!

 

[Alexwm125]

Post the results.


I love my fish!!!

 

[doctordamen]

I'm thinkin you're way overstocked already...


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[doctordamen]

Whoa... Stocking level is 200%, filtration capacity is 32%......
You should probably get another filter.. Something like an AquaClear 70 or larger HOB will help.. But you are still overstocked imo


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[Alexwm125]

Way overstocked. They must be crowded.

And rehome the Kuhli maybe? They need groups of 5-6+

I love my fish!!!

 

[BBradbury]

Your Tank

Hello Tom...

Your tank is similar to my heavily planted 60 gallon. I have 60 Guppies of various sizes, 15 Swordtails, 10 Orange Saddle Corydoras, and three Plecos. One of the Plecos is easily 8 to 10 inches long. How do I keep so many healthy? That's easy, I change out 60 percent of the tank water every week.

Small water changes do very little to keep the dissolved fish wastes out of the tank. Work up to the point you're changing out at least half the water every week and then you can add a couple more reasonably sized fish.

B

 

[Tom Pearl]

BBradbury -
Thanks for the advice. My WC's are more like 40-45% because I don't think there is actually 55gal of water in the tank. I change out 20 gal every week so what I'll do is up it a bit. I have 60 lbs of gravel and 3 pieces of driftwood along with 2 big swords, 2 Anubias, 2 rotala and 8 little crypts in the front. Wipe the clean maybe every other week and change out floss filter every month. I'm very cautious to not clean too well. The tank was started 6 months ago and I just did a canister clean (1st one) just last week. So I think I stay on top of the maintenance.


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[ImACoolguy]

I have 62 fish - 30 small schooling fish(rummynoses, HY 511's and lambchop rasboras) 8 oto's, 3 SAE, 8 cories, 4 Gouramis, 3 Boesemani rainbows, a pair of red wag swordtails,1 Angel, 1 redtail shark,1 black kuhli loach , 1 Kubotai Loach in a heavily planted tank.
Weekly 33% WC with an Eheim 65 canister filter. The tank looks great but I want to add a couple more rainbows and maybe a Pleco. Any thoughts?


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I'm honestly surprised the gourami haven't killed each other they must have good territories. Rainbows prefer 5+ to school, 5+ school for swordtails, Kuhli need 5+ or will become stressed.

I'm with AqAdvisor, you need to drop some fish or seriously increase your filtration.


Caleb

~10g ghost shrimp
~45g ick is fixed! White skirt tetras.
~75g NEW! dojo loach, 5 black Skirt Tetras, 5 cherry barbs, live plants

 

[Mebbid]

I agree that your tank is seriously overstocked. Stocking levels that high cause a lot of problems with things like disease outbreak. I will follow suit and suggest that you stick to no more than 150% stocking from www.aqadvisor.com

What are your nitrates at?

Lastly, to those reading who posted the info about filtration capacity, the filtration estimator is useless on that site. Ignore it.

 

[Tom Pearl]

Mebbid- I will be checking levels tonight. I'll let you know the results. Thanks for your input.


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[nshepler]

I have 62 fish - 30 small schooling fish(rummynoses, HY 511's and lambchop rasboras) 8 oto's, 3 SAE, 8 cories, 4 Gouramis, 3 Boesemani rainbows, a pair of red wag swordtails,1 Angel, 1 redtail shark,1 black kuhli loach , 1 Kubotai Loach in a heavily planted tank.
Weekly 33% WC with an Eheim 65 canister filter. The tank looks great but I want to add a couple more rainbows and maybe a Pleco. Any thoughts?


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I'm not trying to be mean but why is everything so random? Also why do you feel the need to add more fish when you have posted several times about how your ammonia and nitrites are both to high? My advice would be to maybe slow down a bit. Don't get ahead of your experience.

Shep

 

[BBradbury]

Tank Cleaning

BBradbury -
Thanks for the advice. My WC's are more like 40-45% because I don't think there is actually 55gal of water in the tank. I change out 20 gal every week so what I'll do is up it a bit. I have 60 lbs of gravel and 3 pieces of driftwood along with 2 big swords, 2 Anubias, 2 rotala and 8 little crypts in the front. Wipe the clean maybe every other week and change out floss filter every month. I'm very cautious to not clean too well. The tank was started 6 months ago and I just did a canister clean (1st one) just last week. So I think I stay on top of the maintenance.


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Hello again Tom..

Mechanical filtration does a very poor job of keeping the tank water clean. It simply takes in toxic water from the dissolved fish wastes and returns the water a little less toxic. Filters, no matter how fancy, will never take the place of a large, weekly water change. Moving the water through a mechanical contrivance won't clean it. The old water must be removed and replaced with new, treated tap water. Keep the tank water free of dissolved fish wastes and as long as the fish have room to roam, they'll be fine.

Toss in some stems of a fast growing stem plant like Hornwort, Anacharis or even Pennywort. These will use what little nitrates are left after your weekly water change and you'll never need to fret over the water chemistry. You'll know it's always safe for the tank inhabitants.

Have fun!

B

 

[fish wrangler]

Hello again Tom..

Mechanical filtration does a very poor job of keeping the tank water clean. It simply takes in toxic water from the dissolved fish wastes and returns the water a little less toxic. Filters, no matter how fancy, will never take the place of a large, weekly water change. Moving the water through a mechanical contrivance won't clean it. The old water must be removed and replaced with new, treated tap water. Keep the tank water free of dissolved fish wastes and as long as the fish have room to roam, they'll be fine.

Toss in some stems of a fast growing stem plant like Hornwort, Anacharis or even Pennywort. These will use what little nitrates are left after your weekly water change and you'll never need to fret over the water chemistry. You'll know it's always safe for the tank inhabitants.

Have fun!

B

Do you mean 'moneywort' and not 'pennywort'?

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[TheresaM]

I use pennywort as a floater, grows like crazy!

 

[Tom Pearl]

here's the tank and water test results. so no ammonia and no nitrites. Nitrates look around 20 ppm. My weekly WC tomorrow and I'm going to up it to a 25 gal change.
Thoughts?


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[ImACoolguy]

Nitrates look closer to 40ppm to me. It varies by person though my girlfriend will think mine says 10 when really it's 20.


Caleb

~10g ghost shrimp
~45g ick is fixed! White skirt tetras.
~75g NEW! dojo loach, 5 black Skirt Tetras, 5 cherry barbs, live plants