# 30l stocking



## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Jun 12, 2006)

is this to heavy a fish load for a planted tank.

i have a 50*25*26 (cm) tank with a 30l (before displacement) tank.










I ahd 2 comunity tanks running, butthey've had to be striped down for various reasons. Now the big tank is going to have some medium size geos in (will post pics of that when i fill it up, got the hardscape done.

but i have this little tank which is readyfor plants, ordering this week. milfoil and hairgrass. fine leafed stuff basicly. but i'm worried about using the yeast CO2 on a tank that small with the following fish

2 rams (microgeophagus ramzeri)
7 pencil fish (nannostomus beckfordi)
2 mountain minnows (tanichthys albonubes)
3 peppered coris (corydoras paleatus)
1 dwarf congo frog
1 ramshorn snail.

the only problem is i have no algea eating fish. and no space as far as i can see. I'm sort of considering building a "sump" (more like an additional hang on tank)

because its in a corner i'll have to make a custom plexiglass tank and would use 1" pipe to mae syphon overflows (completly submerged so no CO2 loss)

ideas please


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

You have around a 8 gallon (30l) tank. I would say that you will be a bit over stocked for that size tank.

_How long do you plan on keeping these fish in this tank?..._ If it is for a short period of time they should be ok. Also with weekly waterchanges, good filtration and lots of plants will help keep things stable.


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Jun 12, 2006)

permanant home.

got an ehiem aquaball rated for the next tank up.
planing fairly dense planting. and weekly 50% WC.

think i might put some water sprite in as the fastest growing plnat in there. use it like a sponge.

otherwise its bacoba, milfoil, a lily of some discription, hairgrass.

I'm going to do some looking for plexiglass, as that would be ideal for the sump tank. might even get a little bulb over it and grow hornwart in there to keep the pH stable at night.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

If it were me, I would probably eliminate the Pencilfish and maybe the mountain minnows. 
If you like those fish better, then you could eliminate the Ram's and try it with the others.

I don't know anything about the frog you mentioned, so someone else can chime in on that one.

Yes, your DIY C02 could be a little hard to control in a tank that small, depending on your buffering factor.


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Jun 12, 2006)

the tap watr is pathetic Gh of 0.5 and a Kh of 0.25 (official results from water company) and slightly alkaline. so have to buffer with bicarb and epsom salts. need to add calcium aswell, but havent got anything for that as of yet.

going to go buy som plexiglass this weekend, so should have a sump running soon.


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Jun 12, 2006)

as a another thought. what sort of impact do shrimps have, thinking of adding 2-3 anamo shrimps (def building a sump, so u can make it a 20g once i've done that.


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## morefishies (Aug 29, 2006)

I can see a couple of problems with your current stocking other than the fact that the bio-load will be very high and that small tanks are much less stable than bigger tanks anyways..
1) corydoras prefer bigger shoals of at least 6 but you really don't have the space for 6 peppered corys. I recommend corydoras habrosus, pygmaeus, or hastatus (dwarf cories) you could keep about 6. 
2) dwarf frogs are very timid and sometimes picky eaters so with the cories, rams or pencilfish as competition, they may very well starve. just a heads up. 
3) mountain minnows prefer schools but you really don't have the space for one, so.....
4) pencilfish get pretty big for that sized aquaria (over 1.5 inches). If you are set on them then I recommend getting only them, maybe 8 or so. OR get around 5-6 and a small school of smaller schooling fish such as mountain minnows, smaller tetras, or dwarf rasboras. 
5) the rams would be great if it was a ram pair and cories or a ram pair and a school of small tetras but squished into a crowded 8 gallon, its not the best conditions...

Here are my recommendations:
either...
--dwarf cory + small schooling fish + 1 ram
--pair of rams + dwarf cories OR small schooling fish
--small school of pencilfish + cories 
OR pencilfish + pair rams 
OR p-fish + other small schooling fish

not that you must follow these, just some combos I find fun myself. shrimp/snails can be added to any of these as they have a very small bio-load but do remember that these combos are what I would consider the maximum a tank of this size could handle, so if you want to go with more fish then be confident that you'll keep up with your water changes and other tank maintenance.

just my looooong two cents

correct me if i gave any wrong info


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