Big Filter = Overstock?

[Deonne]

Just out of curiosity,

If you had a 10 gallon but put on a filter that had say 200 GPH or higher, could you overstock?

Thanks

[Aeonflame]

There is much more to stocking than filtration.

Each species has its requirements as far as physical space, schooling numbers and compatibility.

Overstocking with higher filtration is often done in larger tanks where there is a lot of space for fish to move around and escape each other. In a ten gallon, those stocking options are limited

[Strider199]

Plus 1 to Aeonflame.

Extra filter capacity on a 10 gallon could just as easily stress your stock if they dont like extreme currents.

[Aeonflame]

Yes, Strider brought up a very important point. The flow rate on that tank would be very high creating a strong current. That would also limit the species you can keep.

Could you tell us what you had in mind? Maybe we could provide some suggestions.

[dmagerl]

You'd have to do much more frequent water changes to keep the nitrates down and if anything goes wrong, it'll go wrong real quick and in a real big way.

[Fishguy2727]

NO!

Water changes allow for higher stocking (to a point), not filtration. However, obviously you need extra filtration to keep up with the extra bioload. But the filtration on its own doesn't allow for ANY additional stocking, it is all about water changes. The limit being that the fish still need their personal space (from each other and physically in the tank's size). If you can keep the nitrate under 20ppm then you are not chemically overstocked.

[Indian Woods Angels]

No.

The mechanism that controls a fishes reaction to the size of it's environment is triggered by a either a waste borne protein emission or hormone. The elevation of this substance causes the fish to sense metabolically the actual dimensions of it's environment and adapt to the space allotted, or size stunt.

In order to be able to over populate the tank dimensionally you would have to either remove the toxic substance or dilute it through a form of waste water and replenishing systems.

Many dry land fish farms use ponds or central reservoirs for this reason. The aeration of this item within the water column exposed to sunlight, wind and natural environment helps to break down this item and render the water capable of being used again.

Many people can over stock a tank, but they have to do massive water changes to compensate for this problem.

[Deonne]

Thanks for all the responses!

I do not plan on doing this, it just occurred to me and i was curious about it.

Going purely by water chemistry, and not by space needed by fish, could a powerful filter not adequately remove the excess bioload? Am i missing what filters do?

[dizzydezzy]

Yes. In theory, if you have lots of powerful filtration on a tank, you can get away with more and/or messier fish than you would otherwise... but the big filter will just mean you can convert more ammonia into nitrites and more nitrites into nitrates... You would still need a way to remove the nitrates, which is where water changes come in.

However, I personally would not recomend the overfiltering/overstocking route. If there is a power cut, or for some other reason your filter fails, you will have a bigger problem much sooner than you would wiht a lightly/adequately stocked tank.

[Fishguy2727]

No. You need to remember what the filters are actually doing.

First, bioload is the rate of production of waste. This is a factor of the mass of fish in the tank, the temperature, the amount of food fed, etc.

A filter does two main things, it houses bacteria that consume ammonia and nitrite and physically collects debris for you to remove. Water changes remove all the harmful chemicals that build up (nitrate, growth inhibiting hormones, dissolved organic carbons, etc.). Filters do not remove ANY of these things. Water changes keep aquariums clean. Filters keep aquariums cleaner between water changes.

You CANNOT have more fish because you have more filtration. Filtration doesn't compensate for water changes at all. The only way to increase the capacity of the tank is to increase the water change schedule so that you can maintain the nitrate concentration under 20ppm.

[Deonne]

Thats very helpful thank you, i just stumbled on the e-book available here. I think reading it will clear some of these things up for me.

[Skrippdaddy13]

++++++ 1 to everyone answering deonnes qustion! That needs to be a sticky!!( if it isnt allready?) So many people think way too much about filtration! water movement, bio filtration and a good schedule of consistent, and proper water changes to remove the bad stuff that filtration cannot, is the way to a happy tank!!! There will always be issues, big and small, but your aquatic friends need fresh water. Filtration can take some stuff out of the water and it can digest some of the toxins, but it can never replace fresh, dechlorinated water.:1luvu:

[icefreeze57]

Well kinda, (not in a 10 of course)

As long as there is enough space for everyone it would work, the water and oxygen would be better.

But again Fishy is kinda right as well, you have to keep up on WCs, and you'll probably have to do them more regularly and on a larger scale


If your "overstocking by" a fish or two i.e. you want to add a school of Tiger Barbs and you want ten, but really only have the filtration for 5 or 6, then yeah more filtration would allow you to "overstock" gotta check your levels though, each tank is different and each fish creates a different amount of bio-waste. Some tanks build up NO levels to around 20 (when they should be changes) in a week, some in a month, and it all adds up.

So yeah, it would help you "overstock" but so will your maintenance (which more fish = more maintenance)

overstock is a bad term btw lol