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Hi im andy ^^ new to this board saw some good advise on here so i thought id join up


i have a 55 gallon tank and someone on an other board has hinted im over stocked wondered what you think the tank is 55 UK gallon so about 70 US gallon i think

at the moment i have

2 Angel fish 1 zebra 1 koi
3 Opeline gourami - one of them is gold variety
2 Long finned rams
2 Key hole cichlids
4 zebra danio
3 bronze cories
2 peppered cories
1 BN plec
1 dojo loach

I wanted to add an other weather loach to keep the other company as they like to be in pairs, although he seems fine at the moment. I was also going to add more cory cats to make the schools 4 each.

there are two small to medium sized pieces of drift wood in one slate cave structure.
i have an amazon sword plant, two other tall growing plants and 4 low growing plants i dont know the names just advised by an lfs i know quite well. I also keep them low growing by taking cuttings.

I have a UV steriliser and a fluval 4 filter and do weekly water changes

is this overstocked? someone on an other site but i wanted to ask around as ive had people telling me im not and people from lfs that are telling me i can have loads more? im really confused i only recently swapped to tropical when my goldfish just got too big to handle so they went in a pond. but they had been in there for a year and a half and the tank was bought second hand and is over 4 years old in total.

In terms of stocking, all the aforementioned fish fit snugly and dont really have a huge bioload,and basically should be ok for territorial room , the water changes need not be more than 20% weekly and from that point of view its not overstocked - apart from one thing.

The biological filter media total volume for the fluval 4 absolutely sucks.Its not a great performing filter, nice flow rate,but rubbish media fit, its a bit inefficient, I had one a few years back, and it was awful. Upgrade the filter to either a more efficient model, or a nice external (usually they have at least 5 times the bacterial area available in an internal, and youll have more space inside the tank too!) and make sure you have aeration , and it should be fine.

The fluval 4 is rated for about 30 gallons, but it underperforms. If you want to keep that filter, then no more fish in that tank, and its better to keep it understocked.

thankyou very much

The filter is the one that came with the tank im affraid so i assumed it was big enough. Any recommendations for a suitable filter? I should be able to get one in a month or so.

Ive got fairly good airation ive got one bubble disk and a bubble wand but i want a third one as i have a dead spot.

Hi,
Here is a link to a conversation about filters for a 55G
tank that is going on in Technicial Tinkering right now:

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/threads/33214.1.htm?16#

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

1 Zebra and 1 Koi? Do you mean angelfish types or that you have a zebra fish and a koi fish?

Inky

2 Angel fish 1 zebra 1 koi

I'd say he ment 1 zebra and 1 koi angel fish.

I think you could add a few more fish. and of course add another filter of some kind to help with the load

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

yeah they are angels ive had some eggs allready as well i had them in the first week my plec ate them though ¬.¬

thanks for all the help guys really nice board ^^

hi just an other quick question with this how long do you think it will be before i need to upgrade my filter with my curent fish + one or two more (no big ones...well a weather loach) my filter is working okay though ive been adding a few fish the past month and the ammonia and nitrite levels have been going up and down but they settled down before i added my second batch of fish and then they peaked again and for a while ive had a low reading of ammonia and a very low reading of nitrites lower than the lowest reading of 0.25 but its not 0 the ammonia varies from time to time i test twice a day atm just to be safe but i keep getting readings of 0 or 0.25(ish) ive been treating the filter with bactozyme and also replaced one of the pads as it was time to the fish looked awful through the night and this morning but seem to be doing much better this afternoon not got any readings for right now but it was clear this morning. I hate testing in a morning because you cant tell if a fish is sleeping or bottom sitting judging by their activity now they were sleeping. But other than that everything is fine and my uv steriliser will keep away disease if things do get bad and i have amolock ready if things look bad.

but yeah the filter seems to be healing next saturday is the two week mark and is when the filter had bounced back so im hoping that it will have again and things will be okay.

ps the filter im hoping to get...eventually is a Rena xp4 external filter.....if anyone would like to buy me it as a present though ^^ or i will draw/paint for filter

In short a good established tank with a correctly rated filter will not show ammonia or nitrite reading even when adding several small fish, that yours does indicates the bacterial colony in the filter is small and not very vigorous.

A well established filter will respond to the increased ammonia almost instantly,being that bacteria always like to massively reproduce quickly, and will often do so within hours in response to more available food.Result being that a bigger filter with a bigger media bed will mean that the ammonia and nitrate reading will remain non-existant unless you hit the tank with a really suicidal increase in fish numbers.

I should take the way your filter is performing as a sign not to push things any further, its recovery time is too slow, and if pushed any further a higher ammonia and nitrite reading will be a constant thing, and the fish will begin to suffer respiritory distress and you could start losing fish. The media is probably maxed out on surface area, and there is nowhere for the bacterial colony to expand.

The good news though, is that if you run a new rena in the tank simeultaneously , there is sufficient ammonia food for it to start developing quickly into an effective filter.Squeeze some the fluvals gunge ( or mulm)into the new rena before turning it on, or allow the gunge to be sucked up through its intake, and the rena will mature solidly and quickly. I would run both filters for about 2 weeks and then you can add a couple more fish. Then after three weeks have passed you can take the fluval offline, and the transition will be complete.

A little patience and a spot of fishkeeping cunning, and your fish will be completely safe. I wouldnt rush it.

thanks yeah that sounds about right for what i was planning ive put in some ammo lock for now i figured that was the best thing to do for now everyone is really active and good colours again. I dont know when i will be able to afford the new filter it could be quite a while and some of that time will be convincing my parents that i need it... which could be quite hard.......saying that i just found a rena xp3 on ebay thats 99p + delivery lol

I have actually got a second filter its an interpet p4 but when i had my goldfish in it just clogged on a daily basis and woke the whole house up do you think i would stand a better chance of it working now?

*edit* do you think that over time as in a week to two weeks the fluval would work well enough to work over the fish i have in the tank now?

If I understand correctly, and also by experience, ammolock does provide relief. However your ammonia readings won't be accurate for awhile.
Can anyone atest to this?
How long do they remain misleading?

hi thanks for the reply

yeah the amolock has helped a lot its put a lot of colour back in my tank and the ragged fins have repaired allready. Im gona top up the amolock tomorow as that is day two, then wait an other two days and test the water if i still have ammonia im afriad i will have to keep using amolock untill april when i can get hold of enough money to buy a decent filter