# 43 Fish in a 150 Gallon- Large Tank Owners Only



## joeyo (Jul 2, 2012)

43 Fish = 37 African Cichlids, 3 Cats and 3 Chinese Algea Eaters
150 Gallon Tank
Wet Dry Filter 
Well Fed to keep aggression in check. 
40% to 60% water changes every 8 to 10 days
Clean - no noticable floating particles
Fish are all about 3" or bigger but under 5"
Community started in July of 2012
Nitrates stay in check (under 10ppms) for up to 5 days but shoot to +40PPMs at day 10

Too many Cichlids, yes maybe, am I getting lazy - no; I love the volume of Cichlids for the tank, it seems about right. What I really want though is to see more of their colors bloom and avaoid the smell from the Wet Dry filter...

Small tank prudes need not reply...


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

Do you have a question? Looking for some information?

37 AC's in a tank doesn't mean much, it really depends on which species you have.


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## Fish on Fire (Dec 13, 2012)

Do more frequent water changes. 10 days with that many fish in one tank without a water change and you're complaining that it smells? Of course it's going to smell if you wait that long to perform a water change. With the amount of waste that those fish produce, you'll need to do about 2 water changes a week at 30-40% in order to maintain the water quality. Also clean that filter at least once a week.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Fogelhund said:


> Do you have a question? Looking for some information?
> 
> 37 AC's in a tank doesn't mean much, it really depends on which species you have.


 opcorn:


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

I didn't really see a question either, but I would also suggest doing more frequent water changes, if nitrates stay in check until day 5, do a water change every 5 days. I do a 60% water change on my 125 weekly currently, but my tank's not very crowded yet.


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## 02redz28 (Dec 21, 2012)

150 gallons is a small tank.


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## Mschn99 (Dec 24, 2012)

first of all, the reasons your nitrates spike is because they are "well fed to keep aggression in check". At a stocking density of your level, the aggression wont be a problem. There are too many fish for any one fish to chase to have any one fish take a bulk of any aggression. Extra poop and extra food in the substrate is a bigger concern than aggression in a tank that is stocked at a rate of over an inch a gallon. My 80 gallon tank, running an FX5, is stocked at 29 fish. Im almost stocked to 2" per gallon of water in that tank and it runs flawlessly (because of filtration and limited feeding). I hand feed my fish no more than they can eat in 30 seconds. If african cichlids do not appear hungry, there is a problem brewing.


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

I would say my fish are "well-fed" as well...doesn't mean I overfeed them, they're still "hungry" everytime I stand up, let alone walk to the tank. You're right he's getting nitrate spikes because there's too much **** in there but that just requires **** removal more often. Unless he's got obese fish or problems with bloat, I wouldn't say he's overfeeding them or under-filtering them, at this point it just seems like he's not changing water often enough.


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## Michael_M (May 31, 2012)

I don't get the purpose of this thread, but if you like the "volume" of fish currently when they grow bigger the tank is going to start to seem too small.


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

Maybe he has a colony of Lamp multifasciatus, and the tank is woefully understocked?


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## joeyo (Jul 2, 2012)

Poor post, I didn't proof before hitting send. I was interested in hearing if similar sized tanks were holding large numbers of fish and how those folks were managing their tanks. More freequent water changes and limiting the feedings would address this. Thank you for the feedback.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

How long is the 150G? I've had that many fish in a 72" tank and did not need to do anything special, but they were stocked according to the tank size (for example, 20 were demasoni) so 50% weekly works to keep the tank between 10ppm and 20ppm.

I feed once daily and skip a day occasionally...at least once/week. I do not find feeding correlates to aggression at all though.


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## AfricanLove (Jan 2, 2012)

I don't like how your downing on people with small tanks, Just because I have a 75 gallon tank doesn't mean that I don't know Jack about fish keeping. So I think you shouldn't be so quick to cut to conclusions.


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

AfricanLove said:


> I don't like how your downing on people with small tanks, Just because I have a 75 gallon tank doesn't mean that I don't know Jack about fish keeping. So I think you shouldn't be so quick to cut to conclusions.


Colour me confused, because I have no idea how your post relates to the rest of this thread? :-?


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## Mschn99 (Dec 24, 2012)

Fogelhund said:


> AfricanLove said:
> 
> 
> > I don't like how your downing on people with small tanks, Just because I have a 75 gallon tank doesn't mean that I don't know Jack about fish keeping. So I think you shouldn't be so quick to cut to conclusions.
> ...


I believe he is referring to this comment in the first post* "Small tank prudes need not reply..."*


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## aicardi (Sep 15, 2012)

Mschn99 said:


> Fogelhund said:
> 
> 
> > AfricanLove said:
> ...


*prude -One who is excessively concerned with being or appearing to be proper, modest, or righteous.*

It doesn't come across as a complementary assumption. :roll:


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## AfricanLove (Jan 2, 2012)

Mschn99 said:


> Fogelhund said:
> 
> 
> > AfricanLove said:
> ...


Yes Im referring to your remark about "small tank prudes" so just because are tanks may be minuscule does not mean are knowledge is. So please refrain from saying stupid things like that


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## mstreech (Dec 6, 2012)

*our knowledge is. :wink: But in all seriousness I agree, that is a rather uncalled for preface to asking a forum of dedicated cichlid keepers a question.


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