220L el natural stocking

[Muel]

Right finished setting up my 220l and its looking pretty nice. Got a mini filter with no media set on low about half way up the tank, with a length of hose attatched to take the water flow to the other side and a heater mid section (looks ugly )

Got 6 Black phantom tetra's, a baby apple snail and a bamboo shrimp (this one was supposed to be a young amano but molted out into the bamboo fan )

any ideas on what else to stick in there? I want to get a level of fish thats still low stocking but will provide enough nutrients for the plants from their waste. Also I'm intending on zero water changes and just topping up the water levels so I really need to hang on the lower side of moderate stocking I think!

Any opinions would be appreciated,

Cheers,
Muel

 

[ceg4048]

Hi,
Difficult to assess without photos. We do not know the level of biomass nor do we know the health of the tank or the lighting levels. If the plant mass is too low then the stocking has to be low. A high plant mass can support a higher fish load. If the plants are not healthy then they become a problem instead of a solution.

Cheers,

 

[Muel]

Will post a photo in a bit when I find some batterys then

 

[Muel]

Excuse the poor quality photo's.

Plants are Echinodorus tennelus, Echinodorus cordifolius, Hydrocotyle leucocephala, Aponogeton madagascariensis and Azolla filiculoides.

I'm chainging the filter to an external since having that thing rigged up just to create flow is properly fugly.

 

[Brenmuk]

If you intend to feed your plants using fish waste then the more fish and inverts the better- up to a point. More waste will eventually turn into more plant food so you can grow more plants etc.

You can search the internet for fish stocking calculators but you have to avoid over stocking as you have to consider the amount of oxygen required for a large bio load and to avoid stress from overcrowding and bullying between fish.

If you use a soil based substrate topped with gravel then the soil will initially release enough CO2 and nutrients to feed your plants. This means then that there is no rush to stock the tank. It is also best to stock the tank slowly as it allows the filter bacteria population to adapt and it allows you to see how much your fish will grow.

In my 100 l el natural I ended up with 2 angels, 25 neons, 20 pygmy corydas, 10 golden barbs, 4 bristlenose plecs and a few amano shrimp. I took about 6-8 months to stock the tank in which time alot of the fish doubled or trippled in size.

If you want to keep the stocking low then you may have to compensate by adding extra ferts (such as TPN+) and maybe liquid C if you still want a decent amount of plant growth with moderate lighting.

 

[Muel]

Ah cool I'll crank up the stocking some then. Probably stick a load of cherry shrimp in there and double the shoal of black phantoms and probably wack some hatchets or similar in. Though if theres any cheap shoaling fish on at the LFS they'll probably win in my decision making haha