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Is overstocking an issue in a planted tank?

Matt Warner

Matt Warner

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25 Jul 2011
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Worcester
Hi all. I want to get a bristlenose pleco but feel as though my 125l tank is close to fully stocked now. I just wanted your opinions on whether overstocking with fish in a heavily planted, overfiltered tank is as much as an issue in a planted tank than in a non planted tank. According to the aqadvisor calculator I am about 80-90% stocked at the moment, and if I add a bristle nose I will be just over 100% stocked.
Cheers
 
Matty1983 said:
Hi all. I want to get a bristlenose pleco but feel as though my 125l tank is close to fully stocked now. I just wanted your opinions on whether overstocking with fish in a heavily planted, overfiltered tank is as much as an issue in a planted tank than in a non planted tank. According to the aqadvisor calculator I am about 80-90% stocked at the moment, and if I add a bristle nose I will be just over 100% stocked.
Cheers
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Traditional stocking "rules" are only a basic guide for beginners and won't take into account any nutrient removal from plant growth. There's so many other variables I personally believe that it's impossible to accurately recommend a stocking limit.

Good maintenance practices, good plant growth and good filtration will see healthy fish in any 'overstocked' aquarium, assuming territorial issues don't become a problem.

In planted tank the most likely indicator of overstocking/poor maintenance is nuisance algae.
 
Thanks for that George. I think people are too cautious with stocking levels nowadays. I don't get huge amounts of algae, just the odd bit of green spot algae and green dust algae which I consider normal. And after having a long battle with BGA which has been gone for ages now, a little bit of green here and there is nothing really. I wanted to get a bristlenose mainly to keep the glass clean!
 
I guess also it is less of a problem in planted tanks as we do far more maintenance than someone who has no plants. We do at least a 50% water change once or twice a week, while someone who has no plants probably does 30% once a month!
 
I agree with you but more plants also means more hiding places for fish and makes them a lot more secure. My fish love swimming in the plants as well as out in he open.
 
Bear in mind that running an overstocked tank, relying on large water changes and over-filtration, is all well and good as long as that regime is kept up. As soon as you slack off water changes or don't maintain your filter things will go wrong much faster!

Also bear in mind that more fish means more feeding which means more ammonia produced that can trigger algae so by all means stock more fish but be prepared to take action and lower the stocking rate if things don't work out.
 
What other fish do you have in there at the moment? Multiple otos or nerite snails may be a more suitable option than a bristle nose poop machine ;) unless you just want one of course.
Matty1983 said:
I guess also it is less of a problem in planted tanks as we do far more maintenance than someone who has no plants. We do at least a 50% water change once or twice a week, while someone who has no plants probably does 30% once a month!
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+1 to that
 
Hi all,
Bear in mind that running an overstocked tank, relying on large water changes and over-filtration, is all well and good as long as that regime is kept up. As soon as you slack off water changes or don't maintain your filter things will go wrong much faster!
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I'd agree with this, there aren't really any hard and fast rules but the more fish bioload you have the less "wriggle room" you have. I like "under-stocking" because it gives you stability, and any changes tend to be fairly slow, allowing you to make changes before disaster occurs.

A couple of times I've failed to plug the filter back in on the tanks, and in at least one case I haven't found out for a whole week, without any fatalities etc. You can't get away with this sort of thing if you have a heavier bioload.

cheers Darrel
 
Matty1983 said:
I agree with you but more plants also means more hiding places for fish and makes them a lot more secure. My fish love swimming in the plants as well as out in he open.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Depends on the fish too and how they behave.
 
At the moment I just have a few shoals of small fish around tetra size and a Siamese algae eater. I just wanted a bristlenose as I love them. I always thought that small fish were very low waste producers anyway.
 
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