[Raymond S.]

Didn't know if Perameters or Plants was where I should put this question.
I believe that regular baby tears would be called med growth rate plants.
I do have about 1/3 rd of the tank full of them. I do have a good bio-filter.
My concern is that If I remove too much of those plants at one time...that my overstocked tank will quickly be full of nitrates.
I know these plants are using them up well. I do weekly water changes but my nitrate test kit is old as I've not needed to worry about that/w the plants so full in there. The stocking is not at 120% or anything like it but
might be fairly high. No way to estimate it now as it's a bunch of RCS.
Way more than should be in a ten g tank.
Anyway I took out about half of the plants and if I need more out it will need to wait a while till I can be rid of some of those shrimp.
So do you think 50-70 juvinile RCS is a high bio-load for a ten g tank ?

RCS/ Red Cherry Shrimp

 

[mef1975]

Did you get an algae bloom after removing the plants?

Check out aqadvisor, but beware, my angelfish fouled up at least twice as much water as one of their adult angels, so it's very much just a rough guide, very rough, needs lots of improvement.

According to them, even if the RCS were adults, you'd only need to change like 2 gallons a week, at most. You'd be at 72% stocking capacity. You should figure out if their calculations are correct and get back with us.

The angelfish I have that fouled up at least twice as much water as one of their adults is about the size of my hand, thick as a finger, about. I guess an angelfish can be considered, adult, when it's much smaller.

Anyhow, what I'm wondering about, in regards to your situation, is how important an air pump might be.

 

[Raymond S.]

Actually since I can't really but guess at how many they are I've not tried the Aqvisor.
And two gallons is how much I change coincidentally.
I got no bloom but then only removed about 15-20% last week and another 25% today.
Likely still have just a bit more than 50% left of it.
My bio-filter is DIY built in but has Matrix as it's primary media and the amount used said can work on up to 70g tank and it's a ten g so good there and it's air driven.
I'm perhaps being overly cautious because this tank just got over BGA a couple of months ago and has been doing real well mostly due to those baby tears growth
which is using up the nutrients well. These before and after pictures tell you all that is now but one is unable to brighten due to computer crash for now.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/picture.php?albumid=14281&pictureid=50281
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/picture.php?albumid=14281&pictureid=51554