Stocking *PLEASE READ*

I used to do a 5 gallon water change once a week.
Doing a 10 gallon water change once a week won't be a problem at all.

I see that you (nickmcmechan) have a 30G: 4 Pearl Gourami, 3 Guppy, 9 Neons, 9 Lemons, 3 Pygmy Cory, 6 Otos, 1 Clown Plec

I don't see much difference between that and if I were to have:
4 Julii Cories
6 Red Minor Serpae Tetras
6 Black Skirt Tetras
6 Long-finned Zebra Danios
4 Ottocinclus Catfish
2 Dwarf Gourami 's

What kind of maintanance do you do?
Do you have any pics?
 
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Also mentioned by that poster (with the stock list you just named) was a 3 x a week 30% water change and SERIOUSLY over filtering the overstocked tank.
 
i'moverstocked....maybe i should take that out of my sig as its not a good guide

i have2 eheim 2213s and a ugf running on that one

i do at least 3 x 30% water changes a week....i change 3 buckets at a time when i do a change and a bucket holds 12-14 litre...so i'm probably doing something more like 3 x 40% pwcs per week on that one

the tank is also grossly over planted with easy grow plants (necessary because of the ugf....i have a powerful pump on the ugf which keeps the O2 high but the CO2 low... <1ppm)

every time pull a bucket of water off i do a gravel vac...so over a week thats a lot of gravel vaccing

my nitrates are never above 10ppm in this tank, but sit around 10ppm with that amount of manintenance...in effect this means (imo) that i can't let this amount of maintenance slip...this can be very tiring after a long day at work

so, what i'm saying is that if you overstock, you have to be prepared to put a lot of graft in

in all honesty i've been doing this level of maintenance for six months now...i wonder if i'll still be as happy to do it that much in a year's time....my xmas list for santa has a180l on it!!!! - for an unpgrade

personally i like your stocking ideas, i would replace the serpae tetras with neons, cardinals or lemons as the serpae are fin nippers and i would worry about soem of the other fish you have in there

the pic below is before i took the swords out and put them in my 55g...i replaced the 10 swords with about 20-30 plants...the pearls aren't in there yet either

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i agree you need more water changes on my 55 gallon i have a bunch of snails 1 molly and three feeder fish that i saved i cant remember what they are and a clown plec. i do water changes 2x a week and they are 40% also i have a lot of filtration. my tank is super understocked but i still keep up with my WC's
 
Well I definatly have the overfiltration part taken care of with a Fluval 404 (for 100 g) and and UGF with two AquaClear 50 running in reverse attached to it.

What kind of what changes should I do with this stocking list?
4 Julii Cories
6 Red Minor Serpae Tetras
4 Black Skirt Tetras
4 Long-finned Zebra Danios
4 Ottocinclus Catfish

I have not had any problems with Red Minor Serpae Tetras, (Yet, knocking on wood) But If i do notice any problems then my list would change by adding more of them and no more Black Skirts or Zebra Danios
 
your stocking is fine as long as you test your water and it is fine. keep doing your water changes, the more the merrier! if the fish are happy and you are happy dont worry what everyone else thinks about your stocking! :grinyes:
 
Well try upping hte amount of water changes done, and add easy to grow plants like java moss, and java fern
 
If I may...I have a newbie question what do the plants do to the tank, do they add CO2 or something like that, thats beneficial?
 
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