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Overstocked aquarium?


Krillan1r
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There really isn’t such a thing as “overstocked”, just “under-maintained”.

If you can maintain water quality (this means zero ammonia, zero nitrates and a reasonable level of nitrates), then it doesn’t matter how much livestock you have.

The “challenge” is to design a system that supports what you want, with the effort in maintenance that you are willing to devote.  

You could possibly have 3x the amount of fish you already have. But that may mean you’re going to have to do a lot of water changes to maintain safe parameters, or design a system that incorporates a high level of super efficient bio-filtration that can reliably maintain the waste load.

High fish count & low maintenance is the “nirvana” of this hobby.

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Agree. My tanks all have personal space not overstocked spacewise but my bioload is ridiculously “overstocked” for the tank sizes as I am physically incapable of larger tank maintenance so upsizing is not an option. I do daily maintenance on each depending on their needs. My hubby calls it poop patrol. I have pristine water perfect test readings I test daily.  I am retired and can devote this time. If I start missing though I will lose fish. So enjoy your fish do maintenance as needed but don’t stock beyond your time limitations and you will be fine. At least this is what has always worked for me. 

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16 hours ago, Patrick_G said:

Sounds perfect to me, why do you ask? Are you wondering how many more fish you can add? 😀 (Like most of us) Or are you having trouble keeping water clean? 

The nitrite level keep growing and I do water changes every 3rd day 

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Building on the point made by @Daniel - you also want to be trimming and removing portions of your plants regularly to encourage on going new growth.  I like plants like Amazon Sword, Cryptocoryne  Retrospiralis, and broad leaf floaters for Nitrate control as all three grow extremely fast which A) Removes Nitrates B) Gives a quick recovery time if you happen to have an overzealous or attention wandering trimming session which ends up in a "bad haircut"...which happens.

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One of the other things to consider is your "custodial staff".  Right sized populations of snails (both burrowing and surface feeders), shrimp, and other bottom feeders can contribulte enormously to both the effective waste breakdown and the health of the bacterial biome in a tank.

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No worries @Krillan1r we have all been here at one point for one reason or another. I don’t want to assume anything about your knowledge level. You do have a bacterial bloom.  This is not your beneficial Bacteria it is heterotrophic. While not directly harmful to your fish it greatly depletes oxygen and stresses your fish. Go old school fish in to finish your cycle it used to be the standard done right every one will be fine. Add 2-3 extra air stones or at least one it will distress your fish. Keep your nitrite at .25. Do not drop it lower you need some to cycle. Don’t let it go above .5. It takes 4 weeks for the bacteria to grow that converts nitrite to nitrate there is no speeding it up. Bottle stuff does not work read up on studies done by actual scientists. Be patient and consistent. Like I said back in the day....yup I’m old and love it...there was no other option.  Please ask if I can help. If I have overstepped I’m so sorry. I love to see folks succeed in the most rewarding hobby. I’m sure there are thousands who disagree or have other opinions but I’m old and this always worked for me and my exotics vet agrees. 

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Thinking about this I want to add. Bare bottom is just fine no worries.  But for the stocking level you have you simply may not have enough surface for BB to grow. Put something in there a big rock a big plastic plant dollar store pot scrubbers weighted down ugly but effective more plants anything just more surface area perhaps. 

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6 hours ago, Krillan1r said:

The nitrite level keep growing and I do water changes every 3rd day 

Do you mean NitrAte and not Nitrite? 
Folks will recommend different solutions  based on that. In any case adding an Aquarium Coop sponge filter will help a lot and it’s only $10! 
https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/sponge-filters/products/aquarium-co-op-coarse-sponge-filter?variant=29459428507717

 

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7 minutes ago, Patrick_G said:

Do you mean NitrAte and not Nitrite? 
Folks will recommend different solutions  based on that. In any case adding an Aquarium Coop sponge filter will help a lot and it’s only $10! 
https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/sponge-filters/products/aquarium-co-op-coarse-sponge-filter?variant=29459428507717

 

I hated every sponge filter I ever met even rigging them with sandstone airestones...until I met coop coarse sponge now I love them. 

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It's about a month new had started with goldfish for 2 weeks then started adding fish its a 75 gallon I was thinking  may be filter I'm using tidal 75 should upgrade to tidal 110 because it can filter more than 75 plus fishes 

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Filters provide surface area and oxygen bigger isn’t better. Stuff the compartment with coarse sponge and you will get more bioload filtration capacity (gallon ratings mean little)than upgrading to a bigger  one stick a coarse sponge prefilter on the intake and it will supercharge your filter. Aq coop has a video that’s rather good describing how to upgrade your current filter for $10 or less

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13 minutes ago, Guppysnail said:

I hated every sponge filter I ever met even rigging them with sandstone airestones...until I met coop coarse sponge now I love them. 

I love that a kid on a budget who might be setting up their second or third 10 gallon can afford them, and have more of that precious spending money left for fish and plants. 

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2 minutes ago, Patrick_G said:

I love that a kid on a budget who might be setting up their second or third 10 gallon can afford them, and have more of that precious spending money left for fish and plants. 

Yeah I’ve never tried to run a tank on just sponges but after that video I’m giving it a try. My stock likes fast current in most of my tanks but the new one is just male guppy fry and snails galore so I went for it so far a medium and nano I had are preforming terrific 

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10 minutes ago, Patrick_G said:

I love that a kid on a budget who might be setting up their second or third 10 gallon can afford them, and have more of that precious spending money left for fish and plants. 

I’m old and can’t figure out how to link that ACO filter upgrade for hobs video can you link it for this person to see.

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1 hour ago, Guppysnail said:

This is not your beneficial Bacteria it is heterotrophic.

Just to clarify, heterotrophic bacteria is what is responsible for the production of ammonia.  They mineralize the organic waste (break down the uneaten food, fish waste, dead plant matter, etc. into ammonia).

In a newly setup aquarium, the heterotrophs get to work quicker than the "beneficial bacteria", causing the cycling bloom you are experiencing.

This is the initial stage of establishing the cycle. What needs to happen next is for the nitrosomonas bacteria to begin multiplying, they will consume the ammonia and convert it to nitrite.  From there, nitrobacter bacteria will colonize and turn the nitrite into much less toxic nitrate.

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1 minute ago, tonyjuliano said:

Just to clarify, heterotrophic bacteria is what is responsible for the production of ammonia.  They mineralize the organic waste (break down the uneaten food, fish waste, dead plant matter, etc. into ammonia).

In a newly setup aquarium, the heterotrophs get to work quicker than the "beneficial bacteria", causing the cycling bloom you are experiencing.

This is the initial stage of establishing the cycle. What needs to happen next is the nitrosomonas bacteria begin to multiply, they will consume the ammonia and convert it to nitrates.  From there nitrobacter bacteria will colonize and turn the nitrite into much less toxic nitrate.

That’s cool I never knew what their actual purpose was. 

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