Planted tank?
- Thread starter doomiedee
- Start date
Back in the old days this was called a balanced aquarium, and was a model for many of the first aquariums.
If you look at how a natural system works, the plant to animal ratio is at least 1000 plants to 1 or 2 animals. So to make it work, you could have maybe 3 zebra danios and half dozen snails or tiny crustaceans, in a 50 gal tank, choked with plants.
If you look at how a natural system works, the plant to animal ratio is at least 1000 plants to 1 or 2 animals. So to make it work, you could have maybe 3 zebra danios and half dozen snails or tiny crustaceans, in a 50 gal tank, choked with plants.
I guess if you kept the pH really low (below 7), to keep the un-ionized ammonia really low, used an air pump to keep the water circulated, and had a low bio-load, it would work.
The charts I've seen suggest that at 77 degrees and 6.7 pH, it'd be borderline at 5ppm. 1/3 of an ounce daily of 40% protein food will eventually top out at around 5ppm in a 200 gallon system assuming weekly WC of 50% and zero conversion of ammonia. Assuming 1% feed to weight, that allows for ~2 pounds of fish to a 200 gallon system. That's about 10-12 6 to 7-inch fish, give or take on the girth.
Any small jump in pH or to a lesser extent temp, would be bad, so that's not much of a safety margin.
There would be some BB regardless, so I haven't allowed for that. Also, the lights would likely have to be on at night to keep oxygen levels adequate.
The charts I've seen suggest that at 77 degrees and 6.7 pH, it'd be borderline at 5ppm. 1/3 of an ounce daily of 40% protein food will eventually top out at around 5ppm in a 200 gallon system assuming weekly WC of 50% and zero conversion of ammonia. Assuming 1% feed to weight, that allows for ~2 pounds of fish to a 200 gallon system. That's about 10-12 6 to 7-inch fish, give or take on the girth.
Any small jump in pH or to a lesser extent temp, would be bad, so that's not much of a safety margin.
There would be some BB regardless, so I haven't allowed for that. Also, the lights would likely have to be on at night to keep oxygen levels adequate.