# Common to "Over Stock" a Walstad Tank?



## Paradise fish (Aug 27, 2017)

Hey guys this is my one month old 29 gal Cold Water Walstad tank. I have mostly dwarf sag, with some dwarf lily, sword, crypt wendii, crypt balansae, Java fern, Val, and anubias. Water sprite as a floating plant, and a stock of pothos growing up top. 

My fish list is this. A male paradise fish, eight long fin white clouds, five amano shrimp and a dojo loach. It wasn't until after I got all these fish in there that I found out I'm waaaay over stocked. I quickly tested my water to find no detectable ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. So my question is, is it common to be able to over stock a Walstad tank? What's your stocking like?


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## asad_200113 (Aug 24, 2017)

Speaking for myself I'm slowly overstocking my 120 Gallon with angels and other fish. It isn't really "overstocking" if you don't see any nitrates ammonia etc. If you wanna add more fish go for it but do it slowly so your biological filtration doesn't get overloaded. Nice tank btw. 


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Paradise fish said:


> Hey guys this is my one month old 29 gal Cold Water Walstad tank.


What's the water temperature in this tank?


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## Paradise fish (Aug 27, 2017)

Dwalstad, 
It's a unheated tank, so anywhere from 65 to 72. Why?


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Aquarium plants and even native aquatic plants grow best at slightly higher temperatures. If you run your tank at lower temps, the plants don't grow as well. Or they think that winter is coming on and decide its time to hibernate for winter. Thus, the plants are less able to purify the water for fish. Some of the plants you list (Crypts and Anubias, etc.) are tropical plants. 

That said and in the real world, you have such an eclectic plant mix, that your fish are probably okay. But if you can bump up the temperature just a little, I would try to do so.

In my outdoor tubs, I keep covers on at night and turn the heaters on for about 2 hours in the early morning. It makes a big difference in plant growth.


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## Paradise fish (Aug 27, 2017)

dwalstad said:


> Aquarium plants and even native aquatic plants grow best at slightly higher temperatures. If you run your tank at lower temps, the plants don't grow as well. Or they think that winter is coming on and decide its time to hibernate for winter. Thus, the plants are less able to purify the water for fish. Some of the plants you list (Crypts and Anubias, etc.) are tropical plants.
> 
> That said and in the real world, you have such an eclectic plant mix, that your fish are probably okay. But if you can bump up the temperature just a little, I would try to do so.
> 
> In my outdoor tubs, I keep covers on at night and turn the heaters on for about 2 hours in the early morning. It makes a big difference in plant growth.


That might explain why my Vallisneria won't grow more than 4 inches and why my crypt wendii isn't doing the best. What about the water sprite and Brazilian pennywort? These plants seem to do really well in this temperature, along with elodia. The sword plant and dwarf sag seem to just "hang in there", not much growth and little or no propagation, although my dwarf lily plants keep sending pads to the surface.

How much is "a little bit"? Does it mean get a heater (which I'm really not looking forward to) or just raise my home temperature a bit? My tank temperature seems to average about 70 right now. My shrimp seems to be breeding pretty well too, but at the same time they've been living in these temperatures for their whole life.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

75 plus vallisneria sp. Does best at, needs good substrate I find.


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## Paradise fish (Aug 27, 2017)

Funny, isn't it? I hear all the time that vals are easy plants, yet give them the chills and they become one of the most stubborn plants.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

Most aquatic plants in the hobby come from warm climates. Vallisneria is a species and some types of it are Not easy. It greatly varies. If you give pogo erectus chills it will die. Its extremely easy.


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## Paradise fish (Aug 27, 2017)

Do you know of any val species that can handle cooler temperatures?


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

I don't know of any, but im sure there are some, if not it will be a bit of a surprise. Jungle vallisneria is the hardiest of all of them, I would try that but wait until you get more opinions.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Paradise fish said:


> Do you know of any val species that can handle cooler temperatures?


Christel Kasselmann (_Aquarium Plants_) shows that the optimum range for Val species is 20-28C. The _V. spiralis_ species are the more temperature tolerant of this genus, so I would stock with them for a cold water tank.


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