Stocking level

[AtomicSunfish]

As a rule of thumb, what would you consider to be a lightly, moderately, or heavily stocked aquarium? Of course, slender minnow- or tetra-like fish secrete less waste than more robust perch- or carp-like fish, so that has a bearing on how many fish a tank can safely support (eg - one 4-inch cichlid or gourami needs around twice as much water, food, and oxygen as four 1-inch guppies or neons). I prefer to keep my aquariums lightly stocked to foster good water quality more easily, so I'd like to know what you would consider lightly stocked. Roughly how many slender or robust fish would constitute a 10, 20, or 55-gallon tank that is "lightly" stocked?

[TOtrees]

4, 6 and 26 if slender. 

None, 1 and 3 if robust.

😐

[i'm being totally facetious, there's no way to answer without naming species, describing setup, detailing maintenance, and etc 🙂 ]

[AtomicSunfish]

On 5/10/2024 at 10:39 AM, TOtrees said:

4, 6 and 26 if slender. 

None, 1 and 3 if robust.

😐

[i'm being totally facetious, there's no way to answer without naming species, describing setup, detailing maintenance, and etc 🙂 ]

LOL ... so name some! 😄

[mynameisnobody]

There are far too many factors to place a number on it. 

[macdaddy36]

I usually base it off AqAdvisor
Light = 60-90% 
Moderate = 90-120%
Heavily = 120-150% 

I personally have tanks from 80-110% right now, but at times I’ve had 60-130% without issues

[Sora]

aqua advisor is a great resource for checking things like this. I like to stick to 80% and under, you can go higher but just be prepared to do more maintenance lol.

https://aqadvisor.com/AqAdvisor.php?AqVolUnit=gUS&AqTempUnit=C&AqLengthUnit=inch 

[EricksonAquatics]

I like to use aquadvisor sometimes mostly for the fish compatibility warnings! 
I find their stocking percentages to be a little on the conservative side since it doesn’t take into account plant load.

On 5/10/2024 at 11:39 AM, macdaddy36 said:

Light = 60-90% 
Moderate = 90-120%
Heavily = 120-150% 

 I totally agree with this though! ^

[macdaddy36]

Yeah, I forgot to mention all my tanks are planted. If you don’t have planted tanks you would have to stock lower but I think just about any tank should get some plants.

If you have fish that eat plants just grow pothos or have a planted sump.

[Tony s]

I generally start at about 120% of aqadvisor, just because I know they're conservative. And my tanks have plants. None of them are gardens, but I throw hornwort just about everywhere. Angelfish are as big as I get, although I would like to try some of the bigger cichlids, either African or SA. In which case I'd stick to around 90% until I got the feel for them. and they're total plant eaters. I saw someone describe them today as "Lawn mowers with fins", which I find completely hysterical. 

[lefty o]

i use my eyeball. lightly stocked= not enough fish to be interesting to me, moderately stocked is a good number with not too much maintenance. highly stocked= a whole bunch of fish starting to look slightly crowded, but most importantly beginning to be more maintenance than i want to do.

[Beach Cruiser]

42. 

[AtomicSunfish]

On 5/10/2024 at 12:39 PM, macdaddy36 said:

I usually base it off AqAdvisor
Light = 60-90% 
Moderate = 90-120%
Heavily = 120-150% 

I personally have tanks from 80-110% right now, but at times I’ve had 60-130% without issues

Okay, well right now I have two baby angelfish in a 55g with an HOB and a sponge filter. AqAdvisor.com allowed me to enter all that information (except for the sponge filter, and the fact that they're still babies). Anyway, based on that, here's their output:

"You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity.

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 188%.
Recommended water change schedule: 12% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 50%."

Looks good to me! 😀

Edited May 14 by AtomicSunfish

[macdaddy36]

If you want to enter the sponge filter they have Lustar-Hydro sponge filters in the menu. Just pick the one that is equivalent to your sponge filter.

[AtomicSunfish]

On 5/14/2024 at 9:04 AM, macdaddy36 said:

If you want to enter the sponge filter they have Lustar-Hydro sponge filters in the menu. Just pick the one that is equivalent to your sponge filter.

Okay, great! Well, with that in mind, it's saying I could go up to 5 angelfish:

"You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity.

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 176%.
Recommended water change schedule: 29% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 98%."

I might do a total of 4 angelfish, though. Or I might just do the 2 angels, plus 1 blue acara:

"You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity.

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 269%.
Recommended water change schedule: 26% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 71%."

On 5/14/2024 at 9:04 AM, macdaddy36 said:

If you want to enter the sponge filter they have Lustar-Hydro sponge filters in the menu. Just pick the one that is equivalent to your sponge filter.

Do you know, is there an option for some kind of UGF? My 29g has HOB and UGF, and I'd like to select both on AqAdvisor if I can.

[macdaddy36]

On 5/14/2024 at 10:14 AM, AtomicSunfish said:

Okay, great! Well, with that in mind, it's saying I could go up to 5 angelfish:

"You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity.

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 176%.
Recommended water change schedule: 29% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 98%."

I might do a total of 4 angelfish, though. Or I might just do the 2 angels, plus 1 blue acara:

"You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity.

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 269%.
Recommended water change schedule: 26% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 71%."

Do you know, is there an option for some kind of UGF? My 29g has HOB and UGF, and I'd like to select both on AqAdvisor if I can.

Not sure. A lot of the filters on there are older models so maybe try looking for them. Penn Plax maybe?

 

[AtomicSunfish]

On 5/14/2024 at 9:37 AM, macdaddy36 said:

Not sure. A lot of the filters on there are older models so maybe try looking for them. Penn Plax maybe?

 

Looks like their Penn-Plax brand listings are just for canister filters. So, I simply used the sponge filter equivalent.

Right now my 29g just has 7 zebra danios in it:

"You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity.

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 665%.
Recommended water change schedule: 9% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 44%."

I'm thinking of adding a dwarf gourami, which would be:

"You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity.

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 520%. 
Recommended water change schedule: 11% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 51%."

So, I'm probably going to do that. My aquariums are in my teaching lab. In the summers, I come in only once a month to do a 60% water change. When I'm not here, the tanks are fed by automatic fish feeders. So, I can't get any demanding aquatic animals, with crazy diets or anything, because they must be able to accept flakes and/or pellets dispensed by the robot during summer vacation. That's also why I like to stock them only lightly.

Edited May 14 by AtomicSunfish