Somewhat of a Rambling Stocking Question

[riseabovethesun]

I know this question is asked over and over again, but I am curious about filtration capacity/stocking levels.

Roughly I have:
37 fish
25 shrimp
5 snails

in my 36 gallon bowfront tank. According to AqAdvisor my stocking level is 123% and filtration capacity is 69% with 35% water changes needed.

I'm a firm believer that the stocking level depends on the fish and the plants. But maybe that's not true? At what point would you know that you are overstocked, deaths? Dirty water? Inactive fish? I know fish will just deal with small spaces, which of course may lead to their death, but it'd be near impossible to tell that way. And it'd be one thing to have 37 neon tetras versus 37 clown loaches (just throwing random names out). And then 2 plants versus 10 plants in your tank will drastically change things.

So is there really any key things to know/look for with stocking levels and filter capacity? Or should you just always buy a filter that is x amount of gallons above what you have? Or do so many more water changes if you have overstocked the tank? I was looking to upgrade my filter later this fall anyhow so it won't be an issue anymore if it is based on the filter.

Also my ammonia has always been 0, nitrite was .1, now 0 and nitrate at its highest was 20, now 10ppm. Plants balance everything out?

 

[bassbonediva]

I think as long as all the fish have sufficient space to swim and your parameters stay in check, being slightly overstocked is fine. The only thing about being under-filtered is that it means your filter is going to have to work harder to keep up with the amount of waste and everything. It also means that, depending on what filter you're using, there's less surface area for your beneficial bacteria to colonize on. It's always best to be significantly over-filtered, in my opinion.

 

[riseabovethesun]

I definitely want to get a new filter, I do absolutely love mine though. I have the Rena Filstar XP1. I know some people hate them just like some people hate the Fluval then there are the ones who love them. I would like to upgrade to the XP2.

Just had to ask the question to verify because I think stocking gets so super confusing sometimes. I also don't have any fish that are over 2", I have shrimp bigger than my fish.

 

[bassbonediva]

My 55gal is going to be slightly overstocked once I get the stocking to where I want it to be, but I'm running a canister filter rated for a 100gal tank on it, so I feel comfortable with it being overstocked. The only reason the 55gal will be considered overstocked is because of the potential adult sizes of all my fish. There actually won't be more than fifteen fish in there.

 

[lauraf]

Errm, riseabovethesun, see what's been going in in my 'angels in community tank' thread - TAL has some pretty strong opinions, and thinks that my overstocked tank is okay.

 

[riseabovethesun]

Ah, yeah. My filter says it is for a 45 gallon tank and I may as well not even include the cardinals because I never see them ha. I cannot wait to see it all stocked and put together

I'm glad to know that I'm not too far off in understanding the stocking dilemmas.

@lauraf, ah yeah. I was following that thread a bit. I guess I was more just kind of looking for what would be a sign of overstocking not so much as to mine being overstocked (but if it were to let me know of course). I figured diseases or deaths would be the first warning, but didn't know if anyone else experienced anything. Personally, I don't think shrimip and snails should count that much in the stocking level they count for 1%/each on AqAdvisor like some of my fish. But they do not nearly create as much of a bioload.