15 gal tank fish load

I'm planning on setting up a planted 15 gal tank with visitherm 75w heater, aquaclear 20 filter and using carib sea ecocomplete 20# substrate. The animal load would be 11 neon tetras, 5 white clouds, 1 cory cat, pair of guppys and two cherry red shrimp.
Would this be an overload, should I step the filter up to a 30?
Whatever comments would be appreciated.
Nels

 

As far as the filter, I would get one rated for the 20-30 gal range. Not sure what the rating is on the aquaclear 20. It's always better to have one rated for something larger than your actual tank volume. The bioload sounds a little high to me, but I'm not a freshy so I couldn't tell you for sure.

 

Just as SW is 1/2" fish per 1g, FW is about 1" fish per 1g of water. Yours sounds a little overstocked.

 

I don't believe either of those are correct.


You can fill up a FW quite a bit... but I wouldn't right away. Are you planning on doing this all at once or bit by bit?

 

I'll probably stock the tank over time not all at once

 

originally back when i started in the aquarium world i was told by someone 1" per gal for fresh and .5" per gal for salt. over time i learned this is just a rule of thumb and not something set in stone. it really comes down to the habitat and how its running.

in building many planted tanks over the years i would recommend this as a possible course of action:

- setup the tank
- get a neon and let the tank cycle for two weeks monitoring for the nitrite/nitrate spikes and falls
- get another neon
- start with one or two plants
- get water parameters in check for atleast another two weeks and make sure the plants are not regressing
- thereafter id start aggressively planting and adding in the rest of your livestock list

as you add in livestock just give yourself a week or two for the bacteria to catchup. watch the water params closely.

with a planted tank you may wind up running a DIY CO2 bottle to help the plants. if you go this route id get it setup and going with the neons in there they wont mind (atleast mine never did. pretty hardy fish)

i would not get a cory cat. there are other bottom feeders or algae grazers that will have a full size of 1.5" that would be better suited for a 15gal. a full sized adult cory catfish can get to about 5" (i know i have one...and yes there are about 1000 different specifics of corys but for the most part to my knowledge they grow to a 4-5" full adult size)

ive had several planted tanks over the years. most recently i fully planted a 55gal cichlid tank that has 26 fish in it ranging from 1"-6.5" (see the 1" per fish rule right out the window there...)

 

BJE,
Thanks for the info, will keep it in mind especially bout the cory cat, any suggestions?
Nels

 

As far as im aware, you cram FW quite alot, if you ever go to an LFS they have loads in one tank. Plus generally you have plants in FW tanks which absorb alot of nutrients.

 

That load should be OK most of the fish are very slender and the sizes are generally small plus the plants will help. It won't hurt to go with a filter rated for 30 gallons.

 

I have a 29 gallon planted tank with over 25 small fish plus snails and shrimp also a med cory cat and a pictus cat.I occationally dose diy co2(yeast reactor)This tank has been around for sometime and is one tank i allmost never have to mess with.But yes stay away from those plants in the plastic cylinder from petsmart and petco,most are not even aquitic plants,i found most are more for high humidity terraniums,not for constant underwater use,i tried some they all failed.So yes your bioload will be ok and easy plants to start with are amazon swords,java fern and java moss-there good looking plants with little requirments other than light,the neutrients will come from your livestock waste.Hope this helps