Tank Setup
- Thread starter jrosero2906
- Start date
well your tank is to small for all the fish that you keep as I explained before
Tank is far too small for even a single arowana. They will need at least a 200+ gallon aquarium. They will grow wider than the width of your tank in time.
10 frontosa will also be too many after a while. They are not fast growers but get quite large. Yours are already adults as well. The parrots may bother the frontosa after a while, or they may not.
I would recommend you sell the arowanas and upgrade to a 180 gallon tank. You should be able to keep the other fish in a 180. If you cannot upgrade and can only keep the 90 gallon, I would either sell everything but the parrots and pleco... or sell everything but half of the frontosas.
Do you test your water? How long have the fish currently been in the tank? I would wonder what your nitrates are like.
High nitrates (caused by overstocking or not enough maintenance- both present here) cause damage to the fish over the long term, can make fish more susceptible to illness, can stunt growth, generally not good for your fish. Most of us try to keep nitrates around 20ppm or less. I would bet that yours are much higher with your maintenance schedule and bioload. I would do WC's until you are maintining 20ppm, and keep that frequency as your new schedule. You should measure nitrate before and after WC's to see how much your fish are producing.
Hope you understand that we are not trying to be negative, but give good advice for your fish to stay healthy and live comfortably. Not sure who gave you advice on this stocking currently, but I would not listen to them anymore, their ideas don't align with conventional knowledge and where the aquarium hobby is today.
10 frontosa will also be too many after a while. They are not fast growers but get quite large. Yours are already adults as well. The parrots may bother the frontosa after a while, or they may not.
I would recommend you sell the arowanas and upgrade to a 180 gallon tank. You should be able to keep the other fish in a 180. If you cannot upgrade and can only keep the 90 gallon, I would either sell everything but the parrots and pleco... or sell everything but half of the frontosas.
Do you test your water? How long have the fish currently been in the tank? I would wonder what your nitrates are like.
High nitrates (caused by overstocking or not enough maintenance- both present here) cause damage to the fish over the long term, can make fish more susceptible to illness, can stunt growth, generally not good for your fish. Most of us try to keep nitrates around 20ppm or less. I would bet that yours are much higher with your maintenance schedule and bioload. I would do WC's until you are maintining 20ppm, and keep that frequency as your new schedule. You should measure nitrate before and after WC's to see how much your fish are producing.
Hope you understand that we are not trying to be negative, but give good advice for your fish to stay healthy and live comfortably. Not sure who gave you advice on this stocking currently, but I would not listen to them anymore, their ideas don't align with conventional knowledge and where the aquarium hobby is today.
They've all been there for 2 months now. Thank you so much for all the advise and I will seriously consider everything that everyone has said in this thread. God bless you all.
The major factor determining your water change schedule is your nitrate reading, which you don't give. But given your current stock and water change schedule i'd be amazed if your nitrate wasn't very high come water change day. Do you ever test for nitrate?
from what everyone has told, i would say my nitrate would be higher than acceptable level but I will test today when i get home. and I will do more frequent water change (once a week is enough?). thank you for the advise.
test your water everyday keep a note book with readings. when you notice the pattern in the results of your nitrate build up then you can see when to do your changes. take readings after the water change to see if you need to do 50% 60% etc to get the readings into the proper range.
Once a week may be enough, if you can keep nitrate from going too high with the once a week WC. Only way to know is to test it before and after WC. What is an "acceptable level" may differ depending who you ask- but most of us here shoot for 20ppm. If you test it after WC and you are still high, I'd do another.
So basically, just test your water to find out how many you need to do. If one WC a week keeps you under or close to 20 by the time your next WC is scheduled; then it is enough. If your fish product so much that it is much higher, you may need to do another inbetween, or do a larger percentage.
edit: bichir king beat me to it! His info is correct
I've kept a 350liter tank aswell. My fish stock was less but still to much fish for a 1,2meter tank. I did once a week 30%. I think with your stocking you would need to do a 30% after 3 days. If it's possible I would look as fast as possible for new homes. After that you should make a new topic and we can help with stocking 
I have eight adult frontosas in a 135 gallon six foot long tank. I only keep a pleco in there with them. They range in size from 4 to 11 inches. I had to keep four frontosas in a 90 gallon last year for a month due to a renovation. They survived but I felt bad for them being in there.
I change 60-65% of the water once a week.
I change 60-65% of the water once a week.
