Currently in my 125 I have 3 convicts, 2 firemouths, a pleco, a threadfin acara and an electric blue Jack Dempsey. As soon as the Dempsey gets a little bigger I will be moving my belly crawler pike in with them. Is this tank already overstocked?
Overstocked?
- Thread starter Com3backKid
- Start date
+1... A might work, might not mix of fish as adults imo, but you can always change things around later if you want. As for the pleco, you don't specify what type. I agree common plecos are waste factories, but you can compensate with water changes and substrate cleaning and still keep a clean tank, question is are they worth it, but then different fish are sold as generic plecos, not all get the same size.
Can someone explain to me why this is? I know it is common knowledge that plecos have big bioloads, and mine have always creaed plenty of poop, but what about the nitrogen in = nitrogen out thing? If you are not feeding much more because of the pleco, where is the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate coming from? The waste must already be in the tank; the pleco is just changing its form, unless I am really missing something here.
My simpleton explanation as follows:
The fundamental types of organic compounds all contain nitrogen (https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-g.../the-chemical-basis-of-life/organic-compounds). As such, some of the nitrogen in a tank is locked up in the form of fish, plants, etc. As you feed you're continually adding nitrogen, some of which gets locked up in the form of fish and plant growth, but some is converted to ammonia, which feeds your beneficial bacteria colony. Ultimately some ends up as nitrates, tanks vary in their friendliness to nitrate processing bacteria, and consequently their capacity to process nitrates, but ultimately the vast of majority of tanks get an overload of nitrogen, which you remove with water changes.
In other words, all nitrogen compounds are not created equal. The NH2 and other nitrogen molecules in nutrients becomes the NH3 of ammonia. Also, all fish are not equal as to digestive efficiency. Fish that are large and produce an inordinate volume of waste not only tend to demand more nitrogen input (feeding) but they are processing this into more waste, more ammonia, and ultimately more nitrates. And if you reason that some of what they're consuming is wood, dead plant material, etc., they are also unlocking the nitrogen stored in these forms to produce ammonia-- sort of like burning fossil fuels.
The fundamental types of organic compounds all contain nitrogen (https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-g.../the-chemical-basis-of-life/organic-compounds). As such, some of the nitrogen in a tank is locked up in the form of fish, plants, etc. As you feed you're continually adding nitrogen, some of which gets locked up in the form of fish and plant growth, but some is converted to ammonia, which feeds your beneficial bacteria colony. Ultimately some ends up as nitrates, tanks vary in their friendliness to nitrate processing bacteria, and consequently their capacity to process nitrates, but ultimately the vast of majority of tanks get an overload of nitrogen, which you remove with water changes.
In other words, all nitrogen compounds are not created equal. The NH2 and other nitrogen molecules in nutrients becomes the NH3 of ammonia. Also, all fish are not equal as to digestive efficiency. Fish that are large and produce an inordinate volume of waste not only tend to demand more nitrogen input (feeding) but they are processing this into more waste, more ammonia, and ultimately more nitrates. And if you reason that some of what they're consuming is wood, dead plant material, etc., they are also unlocking the nitrogen stored in these forms to produce ammonia-- sort of like burning fossil fuels.
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