AquAdvisor - software to help you stock your tanks!

[deeleywoman]

this is awesome!!! i have been beating my brains out trying to plan out my tank!!!! this will make my life so much easier by the time my cycle is done and i'm ready to stock... you rock!!! :headbang2:

just a few things for you....

1) i put in the exact dimensions of my tank, since 16-gallon isn't one of the common choices, and the program said i had 19.9 gallons to play with... this obviously isn't correct (although i can get away with having more since i have plants, but that's beside the point), and the issue is that my tank is bow-fronted. perhaps this could be another of the tank options available in the future...

2) is there a possibility of having other inhabitants, such as snails and shrimp, added to the DB?

3) between the obvious british-style spellings and use of celsius, i'm assuming this program didn't originate from the US... could we possibly get an option to have our temperatures displayed in fahrenheit? that definitely threw me for a brief loop lol

4) how about some indication or sort filter for what part of the world a species comes from? like, for people who are trying to plan a tank based on a specific region, such as SE asia or south america or where ever... just a thought

like i said, you rock. you rock my socks.

 

[yhbae]

1) i put in the exact dimensions of my tank, since 16-gallon isn't one of the common choices, and the program said i had 19.9 gallons to play with... this obviously isn't correct (although i can get away with having more since i have plants, but that's beside the point), and the issue is that my tank is bow-fronted. perhaps this could be another of the tank options available in the future...

Yes I actually realized this only few days ago when someone was asking about stocking level for his bowfront 46g tank which I believe is common. I'm gonna have to look further into that.

2) is there a possibility of having other inhabitants, such as snails and shrimp, added to the DB?

Yes I am planning to. I've been looking into shrimp bioload for that reason.

3) between the obvious british-style spellings and use of celsius, i'm assuming this program didn't originate from the US... could we possibly get an option to have our temperatures displayed in fahrenheit? that definitely threw me for a brief loop lol

I studied high school in England, I think you can see my British influence there. Plus Canada is kinda closer to UK in the measurement units. It should be easy to add the mode to flip between the two.

4) how about some indication or sort filter for what part of the world a species comes from? like, for people who are trying to plan a tank based on a specific region, such as SE asia or south america or where ever... just a thought

I actually have this field already present internally in DB - just need to use it in some sensible way.

like i said, you rock. you rock my socks.

Thanks, but please do post what you intend to stock in this forum though. You would never know what program don't catch yet. As some experienced people here mentioned already, stocking is very complex and I am essentially building a knowledge DB of fishes with many attributes along with many rules in the application. More feedback means more accurate results.

 

[x3ro]

I'm not sure all bowfronts are created equal... I'm not sure that all of them have the same distance of bow, if that makes sense...

It would almost be better for BFs, that the person measure the depth of the tank at the ends, rather than the deepest point of the bow... This will yield less gallons than the tank may be, but will be a better indicator of close to the true available gallons the person has to play with for stocking..

Just my thought on that matter

 

[yhbae]

I'm not sure all bowfronts are created equal... I'm not sure that all of them have the same distance of bow, if that makes sense...

It would almost be better for BFs, that the person measure the depth of the tank at the ends, rather than the deepest point of the bow... This will yield less gallons than the tank may be, but will be a better indicator of close to the true available gallons the person has to play with for stocking..

Just my thought on that matter

Hmm so this is gonna be more tricky than I expected. I'll look further into bow tank dimensions. May be there's still some order in what appears to be a chaos in bow tank dimensions...

 

[Winged]

I finally got around to trying it out. It's really awesome.

I noticed a few fish that I wanted to add weren't on the list. I can't remember what they were right now though.

Also, I had an issue with get the correct gallons with my dimensions. I entered the dimensions of my 45, and it came out to around 48 gallons. It's not a bowfront.

But other than that, it looks really good.

 

[yhbae]

I finally got around to trying it out. It's really awesome.

I noticed a few fish that I wanted to add weren't on the list. I can't remember what they were right now though.

Well, that's not very helpful...

Also, I had an issue with get the correct gallons with my dimensions. I entered the dimensions of my 45, and it came out to around 48 gallons. It's not a bowfront.

But other than that, it looks really good.

Often, quoted gallons are not accurate. They simply take the nearest nicely rounded numbers and claim that is the right size. 20g long and 20g high don't have same capacities as an example. I suspect your tank volume is closer to what the application reports than what the manufacturer claims. Or I am off with the volume calculation.

 

[Winged]

Well, that's not very helpful...



Often, quoted gallons are not accurate. They simply take the nearest nicely rounded numbers and claim that is the right size. 20g long and 20g high don't have same capacities as an example. I suspect your tank volume is closer to what the application reports than what the manufacturer claims. Or I am off with the volume calculation.

I was going to go look to see which ones weren't on the list, but my mom won't let me on her computer. (Seriously, you should get somebody to make it compatible with Macs too. That would be completely awesome.) It seems like it was a rainbowfish...maybe Boesemani. Is that on there?

 

[x3ro]

I wouldn't doubt part of the problem is that people are measuring completely to the top/bottom... Unless you fill your tank till it's overflowing, you won't use 100% of the gallonage calculated from your exact dimensions. You also need to take into account that the bottom of most tanks aren't flush with the surface they sit on, eating up more space...

I still say for bowfronts, simply take the rectangular dimensions on the short depth, instead of trying to figure out for the bow.

 

[Winged]

I wouldn't doubt part of the problem is that people are measuring completely to the top/bottom... Unless you fill your tank till it's overflowing, you won't use 100% of the gallonage calculated from your exact dimensions. You also need to take into account that the bottom of most tanks aren't flush with the surface they sit on, eating up more space...

I still say for bowfronts, simply take the rectangular dimensions on the short depth, instead of trying to figure out for the bow.

Wouldn't you take the measurement at about half way between the shortest and deepest depth? Or take the shortest and the deepest depth measurements and divide in half. Either way, you should come out with about the same number, the average depth. I think that would make the gallonage be closer to what it really is. Of course, that doesn't help with shapes like hexagons and the funky corner ones.

(I don't have a bowfront, nor can I use the program right now, otherwise I would try for myself.)

 

[yhbae]

I was going to go look to see which ones weren't on the list, but my mom won't let me on her computer. (Seriously, you should get somebody to make it compatible with Macs too. That would be completely awesome.) It seems like it was a rainbowfish...maybe Boesemani. Is that on there?

The version sitting on my desktop has dwarf neon rainbowfish. I don't think Bosemanian is there yet. I'll add it for the next version.