Large community tanks, stocking ideas

[FastFish]

Hi!

I will soon make my entry into the world of tropical aquaria (been researching for some time now). This is sort of a "stocking suggestions" thread. What I am planning on is a large (somewhere 75-90g?) tank for peacefull community fish, mainly centered around the idea of several largish schools of very small fish (rasboras or cardinals, danios?), perhaps with a medium group of lemon tetras (which I really like), a couple of clown loaches and maybe otos or some misc. small tetras. I would like to ask what are the (over)stocking considerations with many small fish in a large tank, how do the equations (1"/fish) change? At this size, is water capacity or surface area more important? Physical space or bioload? How would a dense planting affect this? Would CO2 injection be a good idea with many fish?

Thanks, -FastFish

[snakeskinner]

well, I'm no expert but it appears that water surface area is the key. It also makes sense that the more filtration and water changes that are done, the more fish you can handle in the tank. I have my 55 gallon slightly overstocked with lots of tetras and such and I only have a penguin 330 right now and am keeping everything just fine. I just bought an emporer 400 and Biowheel 60 Pro used that I will be putting one or the other onto the 55 when they arrive to help evenmore so I can add some more fish. I also believe lots of live plants helps in the mixture as well. I have a swordplant and a large clump of hornwort which also works as a hiding place for the more timid and small fish. I only have 3 lemon tetras but I think a large school may get a little nippy, you might check that out. I know my Serpae tetras are very nippy so they got added to my "semi-aggressive" 36 gallon with the tiger barbs and they go along just fine. As for the co2 injection, that is for the plants, doesn't help the fish but I have no experience with advanced planting or co2 injection systems. I have heard clown loaches will eat smaller and baby fish. Kyle

[FastFish]

I meant, would CO2 injection be unneccesary or even harmful to the fish, if there is a high fish-to-plant ratio? I should think high dissolved CO2 concentrations are not good for fish.

[Aquarius0015]

C02 concentrations won't bother fish too much. You should be more concerned with having enough oxygen for fish, but luckily, oxygen and CO2 are not mutually exclusive, meaning you can have high CO2 AND high oxygen.