Am I overstocked?

[exodus]

55 in my signature. I'm worried I'm hitting my stocking capacity.

Currently running the stock POS filter from wally world which is an Aqua-Tech 30-60 I think. As soon as I get paid I'm gunna grab either a Cascade 700 or 1000 from work. Shelf price is like $130 on the 1000, but with employee discounts it'll be less than $100. So Bioload shouldnt be too much of a problem like it could be now.

I added a brown knife tonight because we had one left, and for $2 I really couldnt argue with that. God working at an LFS is cool!

But do I sound overstocked? It looks to me like there are a lot of fish in the tank, but that could also be because its very sparsely planted right now..

List-
6 tiger barbs
1 blue gourami (female)
1 flame gourami (male)
1 common pleco
1 bolivian ram
1 blue ram
1 redtail shark
1 CAE
3 black skirt tetra
2 clown loach
1 brown knife.
___________________________
19 total.

 

[F-18 TECH]

The rule of thumb is 1" of fish per gallon. So for your tank the maximum inches of fish you can have is 55". So calculate the total inches of fish you have in the tank right now and and subtract that from 55". If the number is greater then you my friend have an overstock problem. However not to be the bearer of bad news you can overstock the tank in some situations. For example if you do frequent water changes and have a really good filter you can get away with some level of overstocking. Hope that answers your question.

 

[exodus]

well, looks like I'm up to about 70 or so inches of fish, not including pleco. Given their size right now, I'm pretty sure I'm fine.

 

[RoK]

Well, you'll probably be looking at getting rid of the pleco and clown loaches later on due to size. Also, the CAE (when it gets older) due to aggressiveness and possibly starting to suck on the slime coat of other fish.

The rams are the main fish of concern with this setup. They need very clean water conditions and some of those fish produce a great deal of waste, especially the pleco. If PWC with gravel vac's aren't kept up, it could end in the demise of especially the blue ram.

 

[DeFeKt]

the 1" per gall rule and overstocking is by far over-rated in my opinion. Where it is a general guideline, you will be holding yourself back if you follow it to a T.
You will son find a suitable amount of fish based on the type of fish, their territorial behaviour, their feeding habits, their 'mess' ( hand in hand with feeding) the amount of decor in the tank, your maintenance schedule(cleaning, pwc) regular testing, plants/no plants etc. Your overall comfort/ability in maintaining your aquarium it is the key issue here.
If you have a constant and sufficient schedule then you are no where near overstocked.

hope this clarifies a bit

Matt.

 

[Zagz]

I would have to agree with Defekt. The 1" per gal is a guideline only. With suffcient water changes and filtration, in some cirucmstances you can have higher bioloads and still not be overstocked.

By the time the loaches get large enough you will probably have MTS and have another bigger tank.

The rams are something to keep an eye on. I have learned of their sensitivity to water parameters. I'm also not too sure of the shark's ability to get along with the rams. Watch for any signs of aggression as the rams can become stressed.

The brown knife if I am not mistaken will grow very large.

I have a CAE and he is an anomality. He co-exsists with my cichlids in my 125 gal but doesn't suck on the slime coat of the other fish. He is 7" long now. FWIW, he has grown from 1/2" to 7" in 18 months! It is unusual for these fish to not become aggressive to other fish. Mine actually breaks up fights between the other fish.


The biggest problem I see with your stocking is that a great number of your fish will get very large. You have to consider the adult size of these fish. What I would do if I were you is first decide whether you want the rams the most. If you do you should get rid of the brown knife, the CAE and the shark. JMHO.

 

[exodus]

I have had 4 rams die off on me in this tank, but I think it was because of bad acclamtion procedures or something of the sort. I have one blue left, and she (I think) is very happy. She is the largest and most colorful out of all the rams I had, so I think she'll be fine.

Once I get a canister filter for the tank and get some more plants in, I think everyone will be right at home.

I'm already wanting to get rid of my pleco. He makes a mess like you wouldnt believe, and it drives me nuts because its not easy to get under the rocks he sits under.

The brown knife, according to http://fish.mongabay.com/knifefish.htm , says that the brown knife gets up to 8". I think I can handle that, as it would mean he's almost full-size now.

My CAE is already starting to get agressive, he chases my shark around the tank quite a lot. Never any nipping, just lots of chasing. I bought him to try and get my algae situation under control but he doesnt do crap.

And in the ~70", that is calculated iwith adult sizes from google.



Another question, speaking of plecos - is there a trick to vaccuming sand? Whenever I try on either of my tanks, I end up with more sand in the bucket than fish poo, and the sand in the tank is still dirty. Most of the times it just mixes the top of the sand down a little to make a thicker stripe of dark stuff on the side of the tank forming another "layer" of the substrate. This can't be good for anything. Any tips or comments?

Thanks!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

In addition to what Zagz and DeFekt already mentioned, I would like to touch on the filtration issue. I would go with the 1000 for a 55 gal tank. You can find it a heck of a lot cheaper from Big Al's online .

As you already figured out, always calculate the adult size, NOT the current size.

When you say that another layer of substrate is forming, what exactly do you mean? Is there brown algae forming on the side of the tank at the sand bed?

To get less sand than waste angle the gravel vac when cleaning. If sand gets into the tube, shake it out. Or, wave the gravel vac above the substrate and kick up the waste. Then suck it out. What kind of sand do you have? I aquascape my tanks with the gravel vac and don't suck out any of the sand.

 

[exodus]

In addition to what Zagz and DeFekt already mentioned, I would like to touch on the filtration issue. I would go with the 1000 for a 55 gal tank. You can find it a heck of a lot cheaper from Big Al's online .

As you already figured out, always calculate the adult size, NOT the current size.

When you say that another layer of substrate is forming, what exactly do you mean? Is there brown algae forming on the side of the tank at the sand bed?

To get less sand than waste angle the gravel vac when cleaning. If sand gets into the tube, shake it out. Or, wave the gravel vac above the substrate and kick up the waste. Then suck it out. What kind of sand do you have? I aquascape my tanks with the gravel vac and don't suck out any of the sand.

Well, with our employee discount we get everything for manufacturer price plus 10% off. So I cant imagine big al's would be cheaper unless they arent turning any profit.

When I say theres a layer forming, the dirty stuff is getting churned up into the clean sand underneath, creating a thick dirty band of brown sand. If that helps at all. If not, I'll go take a picture.

 

[fish_4_all]

Big al's is cheaper, I found that out the hard way when I got a filter from my LFS. Their price, $22, bought for $38, big als price $18.50. Will never buy locally, not high end items anyway until I check Big Al's.


As far as bioload, the pleco will create an absolute mess. If it wasn't for my huge sword in my 10 gallon tank my 2 BN would have my tank looking nasty. And they only get up to 6 inches. When I had my 55 set up, the 2 common pleco I had in there got to 10 inches each. I would add lots of plants and get rid of the common pleco replacing him with a BN or 2. Should also help the rams feel good in the tank with a few places to establish some territory.

My 10 gallon tank, 13 C. Trilineatus cory's under 1 inch and 2 BN pleco, 5 inches and 3 inches, 1 male betta, nitrates stay below 15ppm at all times. I have also not lost a fish in the tank for months. The BN will also knock out the algae, at least they did for me.