100g Oscar Tank, Overstocked?

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Gordofish

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Aug 5, 2007
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Hi, I have a 6 inch oscar and 8 4 inch silver dollars and 1 3 inch Convict in my 100g tank. The ammonia and nitrite readings are always 0 but my nitrates are usually 40-80. Should I just do more water changes or is the tank overstocked and I should get rid of the silver dollars? I do 25% WC every week or week and a half, Im out of town a lot. Thanks for any advice.
 

Sploke

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Oct 20, 2005
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i would say you are pretty borderline, but not too awful bad. i'd up the water changes to 50%.
 

lilim10

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I think its fine, but oscars are messy fish, and as sploke said, up the water changes.
 

Hooked Newbie

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May 25, 2007
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i would say you are pretty borderline, but not too awful bad. i'd up the water changes to 50%.

:iagree: 75% isn't too much either. ;)
 

Gordofish

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Ok thanks, I was worried about changing so much water at one time but I will just have to keep checking the temperature and add more prime. I should be good. Im glad that its not obscenely overstocked I really like the SD's. Thanks again.
 

Gordofish

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I have a magnum 350 canister that has the 2 biowheels on it. I ended up having to shove filter floss into the output just to get the water to redirect to the biowheels since I cut the tubes to the wrong length but I guess it does its job since theres never any ammonia or nitrite readings. I also have a penguin 200 biowheel on there just because I wasnt using it. Dont think its necessary, couldnt hurt though. If you guys think I need more filtration I can throw a penguin 400 filter on there too.

I ended up moving all my decorations today during the gravel vac and was amazed at the accumulated junk underneath the logs. So I added a powerhead to keep stuff from settling as quickly. The silver dollars have been playing in the current too so thats fun. Im going to do another 25% WC tommorow to try and bring the nitrates under 20.
 

Rbishop

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Dec 30, 2005
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40-80 isn't really high when you look at the levels most large aquariums are maintained at, but those 10,000 gallon tanks allow for a lot of dilution. Most of the folks here prefer keeping their tanks in the 20-30 range or less.

Oscars can be a real polluting fish and have some potential disease issues that seem to be helped by maintaining nitrates very low and doing large regular water changes.

While I do not think you are over stocked, I would recommend twice weekly 50% changes.
 

Mudfrog

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Jan 17, 2005
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With that stock list 1-2 50% water changes a week should be fine. Just try not to over feed. As for the filtration. A Magnum 350 is a decent filter but it will not be suffice once the Oscar gets some size on him. If you already have the Penguin 400 then add that as well, otherwise pick up an AC110 and run that with the Magnum 350 and you'll be set :)
 
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