My first try at a community tank

This is my first attempt at keeping a aquarium i normally keep Koi, it started when my friend started to keep a Malawi cichlid tank, i loved the tank so i decided to make myself a tank too, here are some photos of the whole process from cabinet to where i am currently. P.S. photos were taken with a phone so quality is poor. the Equipment in the tank is a Sun-sun internal power filter 800l/h , 100w Dophin heater, a 20cm air stone, a air- pump.
The Tank is a 3ft 100ltrs, substrate is i think ferrite sand( not sure if the name is correct) really red sand at the bottom, with a layer of Zeolite ( was reading in forums in the states in which people were only using Zeolite as a substrate and getting great results with plants) and capped off with normal river sand. Fauna is 3 bronze cory's 2 peppered cory's. 5 neons, 1 betta, 5 rummy nose tetra, 8 zebra danio, 2 female GBR. Flora: dwarf hair grass, Valis, Amazon Swords, a Crypt, and three other unidentified plants. i would like to know is my tank overstocked? i do 2 water changes weekly of about 20% each and the tank is cycled.

 

Part 2 of images

 

Part 3

 

Hello. The tank looks great man. I don't think you are overstocked. The rummy noses grow to a respectable size though. Nice fish choice there.

 

thanks i researched a lot into the fish choices, but i still can't seem to find a answer as to how many small fish i can put into the tank, what would be considered over-stocked? if it just was small tetra's ?

 

I think you should consentrate that question more around adequite filtration. Having filtration that can turn over a tank's volume more than 3 times per hour is the aim. With that said if you look at a malawi tank it look as tho the tank is massively overstocked. If your filtration can keep the amonia and nitrate levels in check you can add more fish to a extent where the fish aren't competing for space. If you have schooling fish like the Neons and Rummy noses space is obviously an issue. However 100 Neons schooling looks like a soccer ball. So it depends alot on the type of fish you intend to keep aswell. The Rummy noses will obviously not be able to reach numbers like the Neons. Lots of people will have different opinions on this. Neons don't have the same bio load as bigger species also. So in again. What fish do you want more of? Neons, Rummy noses, Daneos? The Cory cats will do good with one or two more. They are happy in groups of 6 or more. HTH

 

Nice build and good looking scape. Definitely increase your neons to 10-12 if you intend on hanging on to them. If your tank is overstocked then mine is a taxi!

 

Also increase our rummy noses to about 7 or 8. Lile the un even numbers

 

@Nirvashen Neons are great fish

 

hi there! welcome to the forum! firstly, i would like to congratulate you on a very impressive tank and stand build. it looks awesome!

lol io have to agree

@Nirvashen i think that you are far from overstocked, many people go by the 1cm of fish per liter of tank water rule, but this cannot be accurate at all, as it depends on the type of fish, and the amount waste it produces, for example, you could have tank with 15 neons and a single 12cm juvinile pleco, so the total length of the adult neons would be around +30cm, yet the single pleco would still produce a lot more waste than all of the neons combined. so i would try to look at it from that perspective.

what is important to look at is what the final adult size of the fish will be.

your corys will grow quite fat and large and will produce quite a bit of waste when they are adults, but i think you still have room to increase your neons to about 8 and your rummy noses to about the same number.

oh and the only other worry i have is that you have betta in there, now most of the fish you have are peaceful, but they may just decide that his long fins look like food and nip him, so that is something to keep an eye out for and if you see anyone picking on him, you will need to move him to his own tank.

 

@Nirvashen There is no hard rule to stocking a tank. The 1cm/liter or whatever that rule states is just an old wives tale, because it doesn't take the metabolic rate of your different fish into account. For example, predatory fish that need a protein rich diet will produce more waste than omnivores or vegetarian. The size of the fish must also be taken into account, as well as the activity rate of the fish, etc.

I think the main thing to focus on is waste production and filtration.
The best route to take is to monitor your water chemistry (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, etc.) and keep an eye on the waste, literally. If you find that your water chemistry stays in the "safe" margins you can concentrate on waste management. Your 20% WC twice a week is a good regime and i would stick with that if I were you.

Also, another point to consider is the biological space that the fish need. And this is of course different for each species.

So as you can see, there is no hard rule to stocking levels.

 

Igre with @mydummyname. Very good build and he always gives good advice.

 

thanks guys for the stocking advice, the betta is doing great no one messes with him so will monitor him, the filtration is pretty good, i think, it does 800l/h and so far the water is clear and levels have all been stable, i have been thinking of getting rid of the neons and putting x-ray tetras or cardinals or even glass catfish, i like them better, has anyone had experience here with glass catfish? and another thing off topic, i am currently building a new Koi pond does anybody here know of anybody/supplier to help me with viewing glass i want to have one side of pond in glass to hold about 9000ltr/6000ltr.

 

that sounds good, your filtration is more than adequate, if you do go with cardinals, remember that you will need to up your temperature closer to 29 or 30 deg as they prefer warmer water.. glass catfish, i think @Aqua might be able to give you some better advice as she's been keeping some of them for a while now and she loves them!

dont know where you gonna get the glass, that is a lot of water! but i do know that i like the idea! it would look awesome, will you be putting some submersible lighting in the pond?

 

i will ask her and yes going to be putting in the submersible l.e.d pool lights that changes colours, it's going to be our show pond, hoping it is going to look amazing, so that rules out cardinals i don't think the danio's will last long in the high heat

 

i think a pond like that is gonna be something special dude..

 

that's the dream will post pic's of the ponds progress eventually so keep a look out

 

Nice looking tank!

Please do keep us posted on the Pond.

Do you have any other ponds? Are you building the pond yourself?

 

@bylaag yes i am building the pond by myself it's actually more my dad's project we have a construction company, and at the moment we only have a 1000ltr pond with only commets/moors/shubunkins in it.

 

@Nirvashen - Maybe chat with Zoom. He is a project manager for an upmarket housing company (?) and I think he has been involved in this sort of thing.