Re: Fish load and planted tanks

["Giancarlo" <gp at isaconsulting_com>]

I'm guessing Amano would say 200!

Either way my only reccomendation would be to introduce them 30-50 at a time
perhaps a week or two apart, this would allow your biological colonies to
increase as the food source increases. I don't think a heavily planted tank
with good filtration would have any problem supporting those numbers but you
may need to increase the frequency of your water changes as your Nitrates
start to rise more rapidly. I would play it by ear and add a certain number
at a time while keeping track of nitrates, at some stage you will notice
that you have to do more frequent water changes to keep everyone healthy.
Being a small schooling fish I doubt there would be any issues as far as
space or territory is concerned.

Giancarlo Podio

--- Original Message ---

  a.. To: "'Aquatic Plants Mailing List'" <aquatic-plants at actwin_com>
  b.. Subject: Fish load and planted tanks
  c.. From: Douglas Guynn <dguynn at nwol_net>
  d.. Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 13:27:25 -0600

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I know this may seem a little off topic, but considering that this it the
repository of all available knowledge about planted tanks, I could think of
no better place to ask my question.

I have a 75-gallon HEAVILY PLANTED tank with 160 watts of standard T-12
fluorescent light, into which I introduce a standard regimen of PMDD and
pressurized CO2. I am wondering how many cardinal tetras I could keep in
this tank. Conventional wisdom (?) says 1 inch of fish per gallon. Wouldn't
the accpetable load be higher in a healthy, heavily planted tank? I figure
it should be pretty easy to maintain 100 of these beautiful fish, even with
a couple of other small fish to keep them company.

I realize that with all of the plants is may get a little crowded, so I may
not actually go with that many fish. The eco-system should be able to
handle the load, even if I have to decrease the PMDD and CO2 additions.

Any one care to comment?

Douglas Guynn
	dguynn at nwol_net
	915.368.5411