some questions

[Steve]

Few questions  here, I've asked a couple people and had some feedback but since now I'm getting close to water/fish I'd like to see what others though just so I am sure here.

Tank is a 7ft x 2ft x 31" 265 with dual FX5 filters, all male peacock and hap. Few questions...

1- At full size, how many fish in this tank?

2-I plan on hydor inline filters...so I'm thinking a pair of 300w's or no?

3- Think even with a pair of FX5's ...would powerherds be needed?  (BTW I plan to build some spraybars for the fx5's if that matters)

[four_by_ken]

My opinions...

1.  Depends on what kinds... but from my experience with my 85 gallon... you could upwards of 30+ fish.  Awesome.   

2. Depends on how warm you keep the room.  My house, you would need both of them for sure.  The good part with two of them, failure of one... your tank will still have some heat.

3. With Peacocks, etc... I dont see a reason for powerheads, unless you have some major dead spots in the tank.  I would do a spray bar on one FX5 and leave the other with a typical output.  That would give a nice stirring up with the bar and then a direction "stream" from the other (could even split it up like the outputs on my G6s).  If it was my tank, I would skip the spray bar and use two splitting outputs that I could direct where ever I want into the tank.

[four_by_ken]

Something like this.  I love these outputs... you can direct the flow just about anywhere you want it to go.

[TrailerParkFishTanks]

I like kens idea about the split outputs. As for number of fish in there I believe the exact nber is "a sh*t ton." That tanks gonna be awesome! Probably realistically if you had all larger haps 20-25. If you had all small to med peacocks you could get away with link 40 of them in there. With a mix, I agree with ken about 30ish but you'll kind of see when your tank is getting full of fish through out the process of adding them.

[Maize-N-Blue-D]

The rule I have found for stocking a tank is two inch of fish per gallon of water....The true adult size of the fish must be used in the calculation for tank stocking. Remember - Larger bodied fish create far more waste, and therefore require more water volume. Fish also need room to swim, some more than others.

A ten-gallon tank filled with gravel, rocks, plants, and an assortment of decorations does not hold ten gallons of water. In reality the water volume is often ten to fifteen percent less than the size of the tank.

[Ron]

The rule I have found for stocking a tank is two inch of fish per gallon of water....The true adult size of the fish must be used in the calculation for tank stocking. Remember - Larger bodied fish create far more waste, and therefore require more water volume. Fish also need room to swim, some more than others.

A ten-gallon tank filled with gravel, rocks, plants, and an assortment of decorations does not hold ten gallons of water. In reality the water volume is often ten to fifteen percent less than the size of the tank.

So let's use this rule and a 10 gallon tank. After decorations and the volume of the fish itself, 8 gallons of water remains. I doubt a 16" fish would be happy in a 10 gallon tank. IMO, any inch-based stocking suggestion is a poor presumption.

Back to the original post, 5"-9" haps full grown, 30-35. Start lowering that number if you go with haps that get larger (Nimbochromis, Buccochromis, etc), but in that case, smaller peacocks might start to become in danger.

[LoveTheFishies]

AQ Advisor will let you put in your tank size, filtration, and fish.  It will let you know how your stocking level is and filtration.  Doesn't list all species of cichlids, but has a nice variety.  Useful rule of thumb.

http://www.aqadvisor.com/

[Steve]

2. Depends on how warm you keep the room.  My house, you would need both of them for sure.  The good part with two of them, failure of one... your tank will still have some heat.

It's in the basement so down there it in the winter it stays around 63'ish during the night and when I'm working down there (which is 4-6 days per week) I turn on a space heater in my work shop area so that warms it up to around 67 during the day.

[four_by_ken]

2. Depends on how warm you keep the room.  My house, you would need both of them for sure.  The good part with two of them, failure of one... your tank will still have some heat.

It's in the basement so down there it in the winter it stays around 63'ish during the night and when I'm working down there (which is 4-6 days per week) I turn on a space heater in my work shop area so that warms it up to around 67 during the day.

I would go with two heaters.  That way one wont be over taxed to keep it warm.  Also, if you have a failure... the tank wont freeze out.

[Steve]

Okay sounds like a pair of hydor heaters then...should I do pair of 200w or pair of 300w ones? They offer both sizes in the inline models. I have single 300w hydor inline heaters on each of my 55g tanks so I'm guessing probably pair of 300w for the big tank then?

[four_by_ken]

Arrrgghh!!!  More powah!!!!!   



I would do the 300s.  Better to have them cycle more often than stay on for long periods of time. 

I forgot the wattage I used... but... my 150, I have 3 heaters.  My 140 I have two larger heaters.

The 140 seems like they are always on.  The 150 cycles on and off like they should.

[Steve]

Okay thanks Ken I'll add them to the list. I'll sure be glad when this tank is done because this damn list is killing my wallet  lol