[jjonesrjc]

Ok so I was recently informed on this site that my tank was over populated with fish due to bad information my LFS I had:
Mono
Spotted Puffer
White Convict
Black Convict
Firemouth
(2) Pictus Cats
(2) Chinese Algae Eaters
All in a 20 gallon tank. I know its over board now.
So I removed all the fish and brought them to another LFS. I decided to add:
Halfmoon Betta
6 Neon Tetras
3 Pygmy Corys
Ever since I removed the other fish my plants just dont seem to have the same vigor they did with the previous bio load. I have DIY Co2 and dose flourish excel but I just feel like the fish were a major part of why my plants were doing so well in the first place is this possible?

 

[Karackle]

What kind of substrate are you using? If you have inert substrate like regular aquarium gravel and are only dosing excel then it might not be that weird, the fish were probably adding a lot of fertilizer via their waste to the tank. You may need to start dosing other fertilizers and / or put some root tabs in the tank depending on what kinds of plants you have.

 

[GTR]

I think it was all the dead fish you never found that where being used as ferts. lol

SteveU

 

[jjonesrjc]

I have plain gravel with fert tabs. My problem is if I have to start adding more ferts that's going to cost money when the fish were doing it for free and I never had any problems with my water conditions with all those fish. What ferts should I now be adding?

 

[jjonesrjc]

Steve that's probably true but wouldn't the aggressive fish I had have eaten them they were on an every other day feeding schedule and some never got much food.

 

[Karackle]

What fertilizers you add will depend on your plants.

BUT if the tank is heavily planted you could probably just up the size of your school to like 12-15 neons and 6-10 pygmy cories (if they're truly the itty bitty pygmy cories) which would help with the fertilization :thumbsup: if you go 15 neons i'd probably go closer to 6 cories and vice versa. Pygmy cories and neons don't have huge bioloads because they're such small fish. I had 6 neons, 6 glo-light tetras, 3 female bettas, 3 otos, and 3 amano shrimp when it was at it's peak without any water quality issues. Mostly small fish with low bioloads, but they were enough for me to help keep the tank fertilized

I rely on fish a good deal to keep my tanks fertilized too so i tend to overstock a bit and depend on the plants to keep the excess in check since i'm not fertilizing them with too much else (other than roots tabs under the heavy root feeders like crypts). This works pretty well for me, but I have only low light, low tech tanks so my plants aren't too too demanding either, though my sunset hygro grows quite fast.

 

[jjonesrjc]

Awesome thanks so much for the help I felt like my tank had become empty with so few fish. I will stock up again so they can help me keep the tank fertilized. As for plants I have Spirila, Anubis, Java Fern and Banana Plants. I still plant to add more as it seems you can over plant a tank as long as they get their required lights.

 

[wearsbunnyslippers]

the mono and puffer needed brackish water anyway, get some more neons, they have a very small bio load. you should aim for around 1 inch per gallon of fish, so if you have a 20 gallon, you could add 20 1 inch fish, or 10 2 inch fish etc.

you can push this up a little in a decent planted tank as the plants are taking up as much waste as the filter is...

 

[GTR]

I agree with the high load. I have no idea how many fish I have in my 90g. lol
But I'm a firm believer in feeding the fish on a daily basis, actually the bottom feeders get food every morning when the tank is dark and the rest of the tank is fed around 5pm and 9pm every night.

SteveU
SteveU

 

[jjonesrjc]

Yeh I've never been one to follow the 1" per gallon rule as I've never had a problem with a bio load on any of my tanks my filters tend to be 5x what I would need for the tank. Plus as I said my tank is extremely well planted.

Ok so final ruling on this is I'm going to increase my bio load on this tank so I get enough fertilizer for the plants.

 

[Karackle]

Awesome thanks so much for the help I felt like my tank had become empty with so few fish. I will stock up again so they can help me keep the tank fertilized. As for plants I have Spirila, Anubis, Java Fern and Banana Plants.

I'm not familiar with Spirila but anubias and java fern notoriously grow pretty slow. You could try getting some crypts and some fast growing stems in there, it will help fill out the tank! Check out the swap 'n' shop on here for low light RAOKs and plant packages! :biggrin:

I still plant to add more as it seems you can over plant a tank as long as they get their required lights.

I don't think there's such a thing as OVERplanting! It's good to have the tank stuffed full of plants! roud:

And yeah, you gotta be careful with the old "inch per gallon" rule obviously, because you wouldn't want to put 1 20" fish in a 20g tank! Also I'd wager 3 neons have a smaller bioload than 1 3" fish. So with small fish, it's easy to put a few extras in

 

[jjonesrjc]

Sorry about the bad naming just going off what I purchased them under the one you weren't familiar with is Cryptocoryne spiralis. I want to add something with some color maybe a redish plant any suggestions?

Is my tank really low light people have told me I'm at medium closer to the high end with a Corallife Aqualight t5 2 bulb fixture 1 daylight 10000k and 1 colormax 6700k

 

[Karackle]

oh crypt spiralis, yeah that's a great plant! I had that in my looooow light 20gH tank. Crypt wendtii red and/or bronze is a good low light plant with a bit of color. Sunset hygro (hygrophila polysperma 'Rosanervig') adds a lot of nice reddish pink color to a tank and it's a good fast growing stem

 

[lauraleellbp]

Nymphea lotus is another red plant option.

And you probably need to up your fert regimen now that you have more appropriate stocking in the tank.

 

[kid creole]

I have plain gravel with fert tabs. My problem is if I have to start adding more ferts that's going to cost money when the fish were doing it for free and I never had any problems with my water conditions with all those fish. What ferts should I now be adding?

Dry ferts are REALLY cheap. Look at a 1 pound bag of sugar. Just for comparison (don't put any in your tank) imagine putting an 1/8th of a teaspoon into the tank every other day, and how long that bag would last.

KNO3 is far cheaper than fish + food.

 

[bigboij]

dry ferts are pretty cheap 20 or so dollars worth should cover you for a year +

 

[Church]

Is my tank really low light people have told me I'm at medium closer to the high end with a Corallife Aqualight t5 2 bulb fixture 1 daylight 10000k and 1 colormax 6700k

I'm assuming you're using the 24" version, with 2 x 14w? Yeah, that puts you at a reasonably decent low-light level. Meaning, yes it's low light, but you should be able to grow the typical array of low light plants (mosses, ferns, anubias, some crypts).

It's definitely not medium or high lighting though... not sure why anyone would tell you that. Even if you were using 28w of high output T5s, you'd still be in the lowish-medium light range.

If you want the tank to be a higher-light tank, just add another one of those same fixtures.

 

[jjonesrjc]

If I was to add another of the same light would my ferns and other plants be able to survive the high lighting condition. I only have DIY Co2 would I have to add more?

 

[Karackle]

I really think you're fine with 2 15w T5's unless you want to graduate to compressed CO2, I grew lots of things in my .75wpg T8 20g tank, you have significantly more light than that. Personally, I'd say your on the high end of low light, low end of med light range.

 

[jjonesrjc]

Thanks so much for everyone's help I decided to stay with the light I added Crypt Wendtii to the tank will post pics after work. I'm going to be adding more fish tonight I got my list down to 4 neon tetras (10 total) 6 marble hatchet fish and 10 cherry red shrimp.