Sanity Check: Is your tank "overstocked"

[nabokovfan87]

Let's call it a fun exercise.  Assuming all the fish grow out in your tank, is the tank overstocked?  I'll plug mine into AQAdvisor and try to see as an example.  Feel free to play along.

Note: yep, I totally wish they had updated filter numbers, go by GPH if your filter isn't there.

https://aqadvisor.com/

Quote

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 254%.
Recommended water change schedule: 67% per week. (You might want to split this water change schedule to two separate 42% per week)
Your aquarium stocking level is 182%.

Sounds about right and right on par with how much water I change weekly. The tank is definitely fine and it's doing well.  I absolutely wish it was bigger, but I definitely over filter and over maintenance things to keep it clean.

Let's check my other tank:

Quote

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 167%.
Recommended water change schedule: 33% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 106%

.... Once the fry are in the tank and fully grown it's going to be time for the 75G.


 

Quote

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 86%.
Recommended water change schedule: 63% per week. (You might want to split this water change schedule to two separate 39% per week)
Your aquarium stocking level is 173%

Adding 24 corydoras wasn't too bad.  😂

Let's have some fun with this.  It's a tool. Doesn't calculate plants or what you do to keep the tanks happy!  It also ignores how much you feed!

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 12/2/2022 at 10:18 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Let's call it a fun exercise.  Assuming all the fish grow out in your tank, is the tank overstocked?  I'll plug mine into AQAdvisor and try to see as an example.  Feel free to play along.

Note: yep, I totally wish they had updated filter numbers, go by GPH if your filter isn't there.

https://aqadvisor.com/

Sounds about right and right on par with how much water I change weekly. The tank is definitely fine and it's doing well.  I absolutely wish it was bigger, but I definitely over filter and over maintenance things to keep it clean.

Let's check my other tank:

.... Once the fry are in the tank and fully grown it's going to be time for the 75G.


 

Adding 24 corydoras wasn't too bad.  😂

Let's have some fun with this.  It's a tool. Doesn't calculate plants or what you do to keep the tanks happy!  It also ignores how much you feed!

Tried it, and it gave a ridiculous number after I put in the amount of Endler babies I have! Plus it's a bit of a pain to research what model filter one has…but it's as good as you can get in my opinion.

[JJenna]

Right now I'm understocked, but in all actuality may be overstocked when I add all the various fish I want haha. 

 

 

Your aquarium filtration capacity for the above selected species is 368%.
Recommended water change schedule: 12% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 40%.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 12/2/2022 at 12:50 PM, JJenna said:

Right now I'm understocked, but in all actuality may be overstocked when I add all the various fish I want haha. 

 

 

Your aquarium filtration capacity for the above selected species is 368%.
Recommended water change schedule: 12% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 40%.

I entered 3 shrimp in a 75 gal with a 'Jumbo Bioflow' (whatever that means🤷‍♂️)...turned out quite funny:

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 27302%.
Recommended water change schedule: 0% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 7%

Be nice to know their formula...

Edited December 2, 2022 by TheSwissAquarist
Spelingg

[JettsPapa]

Assuming I could get a count on the guppies, it would probably break that website.

[Guppysnail]

I think the formula they use is a great starting point for a brand new tank or an unplanted tank. Plants and seasoning increase the amount a tank can safely handle drastically. 
edit add photo (I randomly chose 1 tank)

Edited December 2, 2022 by Guppysnail

[CorydorasEthan]

I remember playing around with this website all the time before I got an aquarium lol. I'm surprised that it says I am understocked, in the past mine's always been overstocked (I guess moving the guppies to a different tank helped!).

[Doc_Ho11iday]

What filter would you choose if you used the large Aquarium Co Op sponge filter? 

[RockMongler]

Mine is understocked, until I try to quantify the number of Malaysian Trumpet Snails I have.  Then it goes bonkers.  It also has no way to quantify plants in the tank, which play a huge part in water quality and controlling nitrogenous waste and so by extension, how often you need to change water.  

I also have a hell of a time trying to figure out the filtration capacity of my attempt at a stream flow manifold (I have two intakes, each covered with a large co-op sponge filter intake) that is powered by a powerhead.

I usually change my water not because the nitrates get bad, I change it because I have hard water (I want to prevent a buildup of too much hardness), and to use the gravel vac to get rid of all the extra detritus that builds up along the front in my gravel.

[TOtrees]

One day, I'll enter the details for my multifasciatus shelldweller tank in there. You'll know I did it because their server will crash so hard you'll smell smoke through your connection. 

[Jungle Fan]

Aqadvisor is sort of like tell me how tall you are, how much you weigh, the size of your family including extended family, your budget and I'll tell you what vehicle you need to drive. You're always going to end up with a refurbished surplus yellow school bus. No accounting for invertebrates, water change frequency, water quality, plant mass, substrate biomass filtration, and mechanical/bio filtration via the filter, be it HOB, Sponge, Canister, undergravel, etc. ... Overstocked, and understocked, are some of the most abused terms in this hobby. Bottom line, if your water perimeters are fine, your fish seem happy and aren't sick, your tank doesn't look crowded with fish like a Pink Floyd concert with fans, or is overrun by unintended algae, and your plants are healthy and doing fine you are doing something right here. Any app that tells you how many fish to have is sort of like the games kids play to figure out how old they'll get, who they'll marry by name, where they'll live,... a diversion at best.

[Schuyler]

Do you think it's safe to add more fish?

Fluval 407 is probably way overkill for a 40b but it's also running at like 30%

[The endler guy]

Funny you ask that! That is actually what my latest post on my not so South American biotope is asking!

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/2/2022 at 3:56 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

I entered 3 shrimp in a 75 gal with a 'Jumbo Bioflow' (whatever that means🤷‍♂️)...turned out quite funny:

Oh yeah. That's my favorite. I can totally add 30+ amanos and it's just fun for the tank without much issues!

On 12/2/2022 at 4:37 AM, Pepere said:

And in my mind gph is a questionable measure as it tells you nothing about media surface area.  Put a large pre filter sponge on anhob and you have slowed gph a bit but significantly increased surface area….

various ceramic media types are advertised as having tremendous surface area but there is serious question as to whether pore size is sufficient to allow bacteria to colonize the pores…

100%

On 12/2/2022 at 8:07 AM, Doc_Ho11iday said:

What filter would you choose if you used the large Aquarium Co Op sponge filter? 

There is a hydro sponge. Brand name starts with an L

[TOtrees]

On 12/2/2022 at 2:04 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

There is a hydro sponge. Brand name starts with an L

That is useful, I did not know that. 

I will say that aqadvisor is a really useful and fun tool for beginners. When I was first starting in the hobby, it helped me plan things out, and get a basic handle on tank size, bioload, filtration capacity, sex ratios, temp or pH conflicts, species traits, and so forth. I give full credit to the creator(s?) for making something that is pretty good at what it does. But as with everything, if you don't have some understanding of the assumptions (ie things that need to be true for the output to be valid), it can lead you astray, to greater or lesser degrees. 

[nabokovfan87]

100%. I really, really enjoy it as a tool and I have no issues giggling and recommending it as an actually useful thing.

Amongst other information, what I like is:

-Tank size vs. fish size checks

-fish parameters are compared for compatibility

-changing X % of water is actually really helpful if you have no idea where to start (often you can change more)

-it forces you to consider that fish grow and they won't always be smaller sizes.  Things like verifying aggression issues is also important.

 

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/2/2022 at 7:42 AM, Guppysnail said:

I think the formula they use is a great starting point for a brand new tank or an unplanted tank. Plants and seasoning increase the amount a tank can safely handle drastically. 

It's also useful if you have a tank where the plants just don't grow.  I think that's potentially a value of the no plants assumption.  Worst case, this tool is taking things from ammonia ---> nitrate, not taking that nitrate and doing anything with it.  Heavy nitrates = high demand plants, right? 😂

[Nik_n]

As already mentioned above, it doesn't account for plants. Plants filter the water and use the nitrates to grow, so the more plants you have, more filtration in your tank. However planted tank only works if the balance has been archived, meaning the waste produced by the fish is absorbed and used up by plants in order to grow. Many new aquarists struggle with achieving the balance, which means they need a filter in order to keep water perimeters whit-in acceptable levels.  Hence the website would be used for new aquarists and I thinks that it's intended purpose 

[JJenna]

On 12/2/2022 at 2:26 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Things like verifying aggression issues is also important.

I recall filling it out one time when I was thinking about doing a community tank with some pea puffers...Got a long list of warnings....

• Warning: Dwarf Puffer is too aggressive to co-exist with Endler.
• Note: Hillstream Loach apreciates higher flow enviroments and needs higher amounts of oxygen in their water to live happily.
• Warning: Dwarf Puffer is too aggressive to co-exist with Hillstream Loach.
• Warning: Dwarf Puffer is too aggressive to co-exist with Harlequin Rasbora.
• Warning: Dwarf Puffer is too aggressive to co-exist with Clown Killifish.
• Warning: Dwarf Puffer is too aggressive to co-exist with White Cloud Mountain Minnow.
• Warning: Dwarf Puffer is not recommended to be with Mystery Snail - snails will likely to become food.
• Warning: Dwarf Puffer is not recommended to be with Amano Shrimp - shrimps will likely to become food.
• Warning: Dwarf Puffer is not recommended to be with Cherry Shrimp - shrimps will likely to become food.
• Warning: Dwarf Puffer is too aggressive to co-exist with Amano Shrimp.

[nabokovfan87]

Definitely true for me and the pea puffers I had. 😞

@JJenna

[PineSong]

I'm afraid if I enter the numbers for my 20g tall, the program will implode. That tank is on a "no new fish in, no fish out" rule due to a possible mystery illness and as crazy as it seems, I feel better not knowing just how overstocked I am. 😞

I did run my 20g long through the calculator. It's hard to guesstimate my numbers without netting out individual fish because most of them look alike. But ((hangs head with shame)) this tank has approx 50 fish in it: 25-ish endlers; 5 adult platies, 3 juveniles; 1 molly; 1 guppy; 10 neons which may be "jumbo" neons; 5 green neons; unknown population of yellow shrimp.

The calculator says I'm at 138% capacity and should be doing 70% water changes per week or 2x 45% changes.

I am relying on plants to do some heavy lifting here, and maybe that's not fair. I am not sure how a 70% or even 50% water change each week would impact shrimp. I can definitely do more water changes than I am--but should I? Per test strips, this tank hardly ever needs any water changed; I have to add root tabs 1-2x month and Easy Green 2x week to keep any nitrates at all in it for plant growth. 

 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by PineSong

[Scapexghost]

I dont know about you guys but i feel like i could keep way more exodon tetras in my olymic sized swimming pool

I dont know about you guys but i feel like i could keep way more exodon tetras in my olymic sized swimming pool

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/2/2022 at 5:08 PM, PineSong said:

I am not sure how a 70% or even 50% water change each week would impact shrimp.

depends on the shrimp.  Caradina or are they Neo's?  My amanos (and corydoras) could literally be fine with 100% water changes if it was possible.  The biggest thing is making sure tap and tank are even.  Most shrimp like highly oxygenated water and so that's beneficial when you change out water.

[DaniV]

Assuming I've plugged everything in correctly, I'm understocked...makes sense since the tank is a month old.  Give it another month and that'll change.  😛

[PineSong]

On 12/2/2022 at 9:00 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

depends on the shrimp.  Caradina or are they Neo's?  My amanos (and corydoras) could literally be fine with 100% water changes if it was possible.  The biggest thing is making sure tap and tank are even.  Most shrimp like highly oxygenated water and so that's beneficial when you change out water.

The are neos.