Hi all. Most of us know the stocking rule of 1 inch of fish per 5 gallons of water (or even 1in/3 gallons). I was wondering who among us out there actually bends or breaks this rule with success (and of course please share failures too). If you have had success, why do you think it's worked so well for you (i.e. more frequent water changes, better filtration, etc...). I ask this question because I am currently at the so called limit (or will be once my fishies grow up) but would love to get just one more (it's always "just one more" isn't it?:bouncer: ). Anyways I was just sitting here thinking about it and would enjoy hearing some other peoples' experiences. Thanks all.
Pushing the stocking limits
- Thread starter chunky
- Start date
The "Stocking Rule" is a GREAT starting point. Many of us will break this rule as I did in my 10g tank. It worked out great for a while then almost over night I had water problems... them came ALGAE! It took MANY water changes, LOTS of cleaning and many hours of frustration before I realized my wrong! And I only have 4 fish in my 10g tank.. they were all small at the time... but none the less I broke the rule and it broke Me back!! 
smkndrgn142
Member
I've broken this rule on more than one occasion with freshwater fish...and once recently with my 55gal FOWLR...everything had been stable until recently. However, I'm still chalking that up to adding too much new sand too fast and de-stablizing my sand bed. I guess we'll see when the coral beauty gets out of the hospital tank. Of course I'll be adding a sump and fuge to the system later this summer to even everything back out. But I've found you can push these limits to an extent if you go for overkill on your filtration set up. But I still plan on rolling things back a bit before adding corals...
Yes you can "push" the limits by increasing your attention somewhere else. The problem with that is it leaves little to NO room for error! When you're "pushing the limits" you're living on the edge... most of the time we can't maintain that indefinitely and we go OVER the edge!
Live by the blade.. die by the blade
Live by the blade.. die by the blade
smkndrgn142
Member
Yes you can "push" the limits by increasing your attention somewhere else. The problem with that is it leaves little to NO room for error! When you're "pushing the limits" you're living on the edge... most of the time we can't maintain that indefinitely and we go OVER the edge!
Live by the blade.. die by the blade
agreed, I would only recommend to people who have been doing this for years. You really have to know what you're doing and keep a constant watch on things.