Can I add more fish into my tank if I just add a bigger or another biological filter. The amount of fish that can be in a tank are usually limited by the biological filter right and thats it. Of course one would need a certain amount of free space in the tank for the fish to move around. Thanks for helping.
biological filters
- Thread starter Michaela521
- Start date
The filter will only help convert the ammonia and nitrite to nitrate. The more fish you have the higher nitrate level you will have and you will have to do more water changes to keep up. It is better to stock lighter then higher, unless you are keeping mbuna's then some people think that higher stocking is recommended. Overstocking can stress out the fish and disease can spread fast so Id be careful.
36 gallon tank. I probably have already overstocked some so this is what I have 1 angel fish, 3 discuss, 1 butterfly goldfish, 2 small dwarf african frogs, 4 gold snails, 6 german blue rams, 1 pictus cat, 1 gold nugget pleco, 1 trinidad pleco, 1 gold algae eater, 2 boesemani rainbow, and 2 praecox rainbow. I have a heater, air pump, and for the biological filter I have a magnum 350 convertible canister filter. I took out the carbon and placed in about 4 cups of ehium ehfisubstrate pro to help the bio process. The tank is the usual in appearance with your common rocks on the bottom, fake plants and fake wood. If this bio filter won't suffice I suppose I might just have to get another canister filter or go with some other biological filter type. Thanks for all the help.
Yea I would say that your tank if overstocked already. I would not look at getting any more fish. Adding another tank would be best or removing some fish if at all possible. I would have to say I like you choice in fish but it is way to over stocked and you have some mismatched fish.
Discus perfer mid 80's and your goldfish is probably not to happy with anything above 70's that is a bad mix. Plus goldfish are kind of messy. With 3 discus by them selves that tank is pretty well stocked. The trinidad pleco gets much to large for a 36 gallon and should be one of the first removed. I would say that you should get rid of at least two(or move them) and they would be the trinidad pleco and the goldfish. Discus rams and pictus are sensitive to high levels of nitrates so water changes are key.
How often and how much do you do water changes?
Discus perfer mid 80's and your goldfish is probably not to happy with anything above 70's that is a bad mix. Plus goldfish are kind of messy. With 3 discus by them selves that tank is pretty well stocked. The trinidad pleco gets much to large for a 36 gallon and should be one of the first removed. I would say that you should get rid of at least two(or move them) and they would be the trinidad pleco and the goldfish. Discus rams and pictus are sensitive to high levels of nitrates so water changes are key.
How often and how much do you do water changes?
agree agree......your discus are going to pay for the overstock. some fish are ok with a crowd if water changes are frequent, but discus will not be happy in there....OH yes, if you decide to keep the high load, then you MUST be very diligent about watching your tank very very closely for signs of stress.
good luck!
good luck!
Gee wiz. You can imagine how upset I am with myself right know. From buying the 200 dollar tank to the stand to the decorations etc. everything know seems to be all done in vain. Perhaps I could add live plants to help with the nitrates. I heard of some biomedia that can lower nitrates. They call it siporax. Does this stuff work. http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/4912/cid/1387
This is what the tank looks like know though. Anything anything anything I can do. thanks
This is what the tank looks like know though. Anything anything anything I can do. thanks
Dont be upset, everyone overstocks their tank from time to time its a learning experience, just make sure you learn from it. From the looks of it most of the fish are pretty small, so It might not be so "bad" right now but they are going to grow and get larger then your tank will really be overstock. But please your goldfish does not belong in that tank.
Rather then buying a 400 dollar nitrate filter that is for reef tanks, Why dont you buy a larger tank for that price?(im not staying that you have to but buy another tank but if your it would be a better use of your money then buying a filter for a reef tank.
Do you know what your nitrates are?
Rather then buying a 400 dollar nitrate filter that is for reef tanks, Why dont you buy a larger tank for that price?(im not staying that you have to but buy another tank but if your it would be a better use of your money then buying a filter for a reef tank.
Do you know what your nitrates are?
Live plants is an excellent, and might I add, EXCELLENT, way to handle the nitrates. Like stated above, more biological filtration will ONLY decrease ammonia to nitrates, which still NEEDS to be removed from the tank. If you have sufficient live plant growth, you can have LOTS of fish in there, provided they handle the stocking level psychologically/physiologically. THis is the premise I operate my tanks on. And the plant growth is so robust that I have to actually ADD nitrate to the tank since my levels regularly drop off to zero.
I wasn't referring to the pump system but the biomedia siporax that they sell for the pump. I don't see why I couldn't take out the ehium ehfisubstrate pro biomedia and just place the siporax in my existing canister filter. Should work just the same. I think. Anyways live plants seem to be an easier way to go. So let me see what my options are and please comment on them if you don't mind, but no matter what I do I should remove the goldfish and the trinidad pleco.
It is possible to go with the same setup I have know, remove the goldfish and the trinidad pleco of course, but I will have to get live plants and a rather large biological filter to help convert all the waste to none toxic forms. It could work though right.
The next option is to get a bigger tank. What size tank does a trinidad pleco require? Also is there a manual or some sort of simple rule or place on the internet etc. that states how much fish I can have in a certain amount of water. Obviously fish can be of different sizes so a bigger fish will give of more waste than a smaller one. Perhaps a place that states a certain amount of cubic inches of fish per gallon of water and then I would need to know how much cubic inches each fish of mine takes up when they are full grown, mayby there is a simpler rule that people use. Thank you for the help
It is possible to go with the same setup I have know, remove the goldfish and the trinidad pleco of course, but I will have to get live plants and a rather large biological filter to help convert all the waste to none toxic forms. It could work though right.
The next option is to get a bigger tank. What size tank does a trinidad pleco require? Also is there a manual or some sort of simple rule or place on the internet etc. that states how much fish I can have in a certain amount of water. Obviously fish can be of different sizes so a bigger fish will give of more waste than a smaller one. Perhaps a place that states a certain amount of cubic inches of fish per gallon of water and then I would need to know how much cubic inches each fish of mine takes up when they are full grown, mayby there is a simpler rule that people use. Thank you for the help
Michaela521 said:
Also is there a manual or some sort of simple rule or place on the internet etc. that states how much fish I can have in a certain amount of water. Obviously fish can be of different sizes so a bigger fish will give of more waste than a smaller one. Perhaps a place that states a certain amount of cubic inches of fish per gallon of water and then I would need to know how much cubic inches each fish of mine takes up when they are full grown, mayby there is a simpler rule that people use. Thank you for the help
(1) one inch of fish per gallon of water - this usually applies to tropical fish that are less than 3" as adults
(2) (tank length x tank width) / 10 = inches of fish - this is based on surface area of tanks, as a 25-regular would have different surface area than a 25-tall - it's also a good rule for hexagonal and BiOrb/BiUbe type tanks
** both of these use the adult size of fish in calculating 'inches of fish'
** exception, dwarf puffers (1 per 3-5 gallons, species only)
Larger fish have their own specific stocking requirements - such as sharks (balas, IDs, etc), oscars, angels, etc. Goldfish are usually at 10-20 gallons per goldfish, since they create a lot of waste.
Good luck!
Forgot to mention, if your tank has live plants - then that will increase the amount of bio-load that your tank can handle, as the plants will help consume ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.
Also, stocking needs to consider the tank levels that the fish occupy. For example, if a 10-gal tank contains 10-inches of bottom-dwellers, then that's not good because there's not enough space for each bottom-dweller. It's good to aim for an even distribution between top, middle, and bottom dwellers.
Good luck!
Also, stocking needs to consider the tank levels that the fish occupy. For example, if a 10-gal tank contains 10-inches of bottom-dwellers, then that's not good because there's not enough space for each bottom-dweller. It's good to aim for an even distribution between top, middle, and bottom dwellers.
Good luck!