My 220L Tank

f-fish I have two 2000L/h bio filters with charcoal in my tank to keep it clean(Where really struggling in the beginning it become greenish within days) and will wash only one filter, one week and the other the following week. Then I do water changes maybe once every two weeks 15% since the snails has gone but before with all the snails and only 1 filter it where twice a week.

I have 3 under-gravel filters but I am not sure how effective this is.

I counted my fish last weekend when I cleaned my whole tank writing down the species, color and size. I have a smaller tank that I run when emergencies comes up or when cleaning my tank(What only happened 3 times since I build the tank). So when I moved it back to the big tank I counted them.

 

Ah -- counting while moving them .. that makes sense. What lighting do you have with your tank?

 

30w Flo Glo Daro UV Red light only one!

 

So would you ever consider adding some java fern ... but I must say, the tank not having plants does seem to make the fish colors pop.

 

Plants

I agree my tank look really bad and plants will make a difference, I am looking for some moss but will buy some plants to make the tank more colorful they sell plants for R8 across the street will buy some.

 

Avalon, have you considered to enter that top view photo, in the Photo Competition?

 

Welcome To Tasa tank looks good lots of life and movement.

 

Photo Competition

Thanks Gert, I entered two photo's in the competition!

 

Just a stupid question: Is this tank not overstocked?

 

I was thinking the same thing the other day,i think the fish are just more consentrated in the pic.

 

My fish also "overstock" one side of the tank at feeding time!

 

I seem to remember Avalon talking about 140 fish... and here he says it's a 220litre tank. Take out for rocks and substrate (20 litres) that's 200 litres.

 

Yes my tank might be a bit overstock it's all the little one's, the pet shop doesn't want small fish so I try to let them grow up a bit to be able to give to the pet shops. I don't even know how many fish can live in a 220L tank with rocks, I am still new to this hobby. That's why I joined this website to learn more and get advice, I had some expensive lessons and that's it.

 

It's not really the volume of water that is the main factor. It's the surface area. There are many debates on how to calculate the number of fish you can have in a tank. But I belive the most effective and logical solution has not come down to "x centimeters" of fish length per "y square meters" of surface area. Remember that ther oxygen enter a tank at the surface area only (NOT through that thing that blows bubbles into your tank!).

 

Hi Zoom, that's interesting, I am currently reading some of your info at the Beginner Discussions. So if I understand it correctly is that the bigger the surface the more fish will survive. Doesn't matter how much bubble you put in there .I have heard that the water surface must be broken will this have in impact on this? I have currently 2x 2000L filters in my tank could this cause and difficulties? e.g to much current? but it put very fine bubble in my tank and is this an advantage or not?

 

The bigger surface area def plays a rule but so does the bubbles what i mean by this is that the more bubbles you have the greater agitation there is on the water surface the greater the agitation there is on the water surface the more oxygen you add to the tank the bubbles do abs nothing more than provide surface agitation and this is the key point. But with more bubble being blasted through the tank and breaking the water surface the more CO2 that is lost this will only influence planted tanks though and in this case its not really an issue.

remember
More bubbles = greater surface agitation = more oxygen entering the tank through gasous exchange

 

Avalon, there is a lot of difference of opinions on this topic, but the majority of the findings is that the air doesn't enter the water through the bubbles at all. (Maybe a little). What is actually happening is the bubbles enter the water, and bubble to the top and escape the faster than the oxygen can be absorbed into the water... so the amount of oxygen entering the water is negligable.

The main function of the bubbles is actually to break the surface tension. When the water's surface tension is broken, be this by the bubbles popping, or water pouring into the tank causing a water fall type effect, this is when CO2 leaves the tank, and O2 enters the tank.

You need to find a good balance, because too much surface tension breaking causes you to loose CO2 too fast, a necessary requirement for plants. In my tank I have the bubbles really for visual effect, but my main oxygenating of the water is occuring at the surface when I have my canister filter's inlet pipe spraying the water into the tank via the spray bar.

 

Avalon, what it basically boil down to: you will have a lack of O2 when there is a power failure! The small surface will not exchange the gases fast enough!
Fish will be safer in a very shallow tank! - It will in fact be safer for the fish, in your bath with 50L of water, than in a high 50L tank!
It is also advisable to have large-shallow grow-out tanks!
Surface agitation for fish is very important! - noticed how the tanks "boil" in the LPS? - that's to handle the large amount of fish they sqeez in! :sick:
Obviously planted tanks need less surface disturbance to prevent CO2 loss.
Gert.

Edit: WoW! can 3 people give you so much, of the same info, in such a short time!
The only difference is how fast we press the submit button!

 

As mentioned in another thread that avalon owns ... I really think this is an awesome tank to use as proof of concept for an algae filter screen ... Turf algae filter ... algae scrubber DIY project.

 

I use this formula to calculate how much fish i can keep in a tank. surface area divided by 75. that means 75sq cm for every fish of 2,5cm length.