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Stocking Levels?
Posted: 23 Jan 2008, 23:05
by Candycane
Hello, I'm new to this forum.How many Cories can I have in a 29 gal. tank using an Emperor 400 filter and a Smartfilter? Will they do okay in bottled springwater? Our tapwater is really unfit for fish, let alone people. Any suggestions?
Re: Stocking Levels?
Posted: 23 Jan 2008, 23:30
by MatsP
Stocking levels are highly dependant on several things:
1. The surface area of the tank (which is what dictates the surface of air/water gas exchange and oxygen levels in the water).
2. The water change regime you are using - if you change 80% of the water each day, you can have much higher stocking levels than if you change 20% every 4 weeks.
But if we assume your tank isn't strangely shaped [very tall and thin - like the "plasma aquariums" that they have in my LFS right now] then a rough guide would be about 29 inches of fish - which makes about 30 small cories or 15 larger ones. It's best to start low and increase as you see that you "can get away with it" - you should check the nitrate levels in your tank, and adjust stocking levels to keep the nitrate below 20 ideally, and below 50 for sure.
Bottled water is fine for fish - just watch for the fact that some bottled water is quite hard (lots of calcium and carbonate mainly), which isn't the ideal for many corys.
If you plan on keeping on using "bottled water" then you may want to consider filtering the water locally instead, using either DI (De-Ionization) or RO (Reverse Osmosis) filtration, or a combination of both if you are really paranoid about the water quality. This will produce water that is so pure that you probably should add some regular tap water back in, or add minerals back into the water.
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Mats