20-29 gallon stocking ??????

cwolfman13

Oh yeah.....I was thinking of adding some shrimp (probably 2-4 Amano Shrimp) once the tank matures a bit.

By the by, I input everything into the AqAdvisor calculator (thoughts on this calculator????) and it looks like I should be good to go with that stocking. I thought it was a pretty cool calculator and seems to take into account factors that other calculators I've seen don't.

It shows that everything I've selected should do fine with my water parameters and that I'm roughly 91% stocked. It did advise that I go from a Aquaclear 30 to the Aquaclear 50 as I was below the 100% filtration and recommended larger water changes. The Aquaclear 50 puts me at 127% which is overkill, but there's nothing in between....and gets me to 25% water change weekly.

I'm feeling pretty good about this!

ladayen

Go with at least a 50 for your filter.. might even wanna go bigger. I would suggest 50% weekly water changes as well for pretty much any stocking level. The one exception would be a heavily planted very lightly stocked tank.

Aqadvisor is a great tool.. but it's only one tool. You dont build a car with one tool and you dont build an aquarium with one tool either.

Byron

Normally I would not suggest a larger filter than the size recommended by the manufacturer for the tank size. Sometimes this may be necessary, but not here. The flow will obviously increase with a larger filter, and you don't want to be buffeting the fish around. Rainbows may prefer a gentle current, but not a raging river. Fish have to continually spend a lot of energy just to "fight" currents that are too strong. I certainly agree on 50% weekly water changes.

On your pH issue. The difference between 7.5 and 7.9 will not even be noticed by the fish. Ranges for pH have to be given as a guide, but it is understood that they are just that, guides. Provided extremes are avoided. And pH 7.0 is a significant point. Below 7.0 is acidic, above is basic, and this does make a difference to fish. So your rainbows that have a preferred range of 7 to 7.5 will be fine if your tap water is 7.9. What happens in the aquarium depends upon the hardness, both GH and KH, of the tap water. The pH may lower as the tank establishes, or it may remain fairly stable.

Byron.