I have a 55 Gal tank currently stocked with 2 Green Terrors (1 inch each) as well as a common Pleco (2.5 Inches) I know these will be big fish with a heavy bioload. I have a Emperor 400 powerfilter (rated for 120 gallon tanks) so the filtration should be enough when they are bigger. My consern is while they are growing. Are there any common problems with an understocked tank? Currently there is 12.2 Gallons per inch of fish and 18.3 gallons per fish. Will this cause an imbalance?:joe:
Any problems running an Understocked tank?
- Thread starter Brotherturtle
- Start date
understocking is fine, however most of the time stocking considerations include the adult size of the fish. an upgrade will be necessary in the future as that tank is not big enough for the bioload or the aggression levels of the fish.
inch of fish/gallon and gallon/fish don't mean anything. don't waste brain cells on the math. those kinds of "rules" are just abstracts that don't carry any true value.
what kind of "imbalance" are you asking about?
inch of fish/gallon and gallon/fish don't mean anything. don't waste brain cells on the math. those kinds of "rules" are just abstracts that don't carry any true value.
what kind of "imbalance" are you asking about?
i am a very very big fan of understocked tank. just when adding more fish do it slowly if you will add fish.
just in case you dont know common pleco gets over 26 inch.
just in case you dont know common pleco gets over 26 inch.
ya that pleco is gonna get too big. Make sure though that your filter will handle your fish tank. Just cuz its rated at 120gallons doesnt necisarily mean its right for your fish. when you have messy, heavy bioload fish like these, you want your filter to be able to turn over 10 times the contents of the aquarium per hour. So if you have a 55 gallon, you will want your fitler to be able to push 550 Gallons per hour. The filter you are curently running pushes aproximatly 400 Gallons per hour. So it just doesnt quite cut the chase. You should invest in another filter in the future. For now its fine, but you might want to get a filter to add on to your tank that is designed to filter 20-30 gallon aquariums.