My New 125 Gallon Frontosa Tank Setup Thread-Updated Pictures!

[Kelli]

So here are the plans for the stocking the tank.

6 Mikula Frontosas (I will start with more 1" fry and grow them out to 6) (1 male, 5 females)
3 Blue Dolphins (1 male, 2 females) (2" fry)
1 Severum (Possibly) (1 male)
2 Compressiceps (1 male, 1 female)
2 Calvus (1 male, 1 female)
5 Leleupis (Not sure the ratio I should have)
2 Julies (1 male, 1 female)
4 Loaches (not sure what kind I want yet)
2 Catfish (not sure what kind I want yet)
4 Gold Ocellatus Shell Dwellers

As the fronts grow larger, I will move the shellies to another tank. Do you think I have too many fish for the tank? Do you think I could fit more? I will have a wet/dry, a canister filter, and a hob filter. Let me know if you have any suggestion of fish or changes I should make to the stock or the female to male ratio on anything.

[SunnyHouTX]

Nice stock list Kelli! Nope, that's not too many fish with proper filtration. You'll be fine. And the fish too

[Kelli]

Thanks Sunny! I appreciate your input! You have been so helpful! Anyone else have any suggestions?

[Ballinxalex]

Just make sure u do a water change a lot to keep waters clean but it should be fine with all that filtration but good luck on ur front tank

[wesleydnunder]

So here are the plans for the stocking the tank.

6 Mikula Frontosas (I will start with more 1" fry and grow them out to 6) (1 male, 5 females)
3 Blue Dolphins (1 male, 2 females) (2" fry)
1 Severum (Possibly) (1 male)
2 Compressiceps (1 male, 1 female)
2 Calvus (1 male, 1 female)
5 Leleupis (Not sure the ratio I should have)
2 Julies (1 male, 1 female)
4 Loaches (not sure what kind I want yet)
2 Catfish (not sure what kind I want yet)
4 Gold Ocellatus Shell Dwellers

As the fronts grow larger, I will move the shellies to another tank. Do you think I have too many fish for the tank? Do you think I could fit more? I will have a wet/dry, a canister filter, and a hob filter. Let me know if you have any suggestion of fish or changes I should make to the stock or the female to male ratio on anything.

I think your stocking density is high. At first, with juvie fish it won't be, but as they grow to adult size it'll take a lot of work to keep the water pristine. I would leave out the sev and blue dolphins and keep it a Tang tank. I wouldn't put shellies in this tank either.
For catfish I'd suggest synodontis multipunctatus or petricola.

Mark

[SunnyHouTX]

High is a relative term Mark. I disagree with you based on the filtration she has and what she intends to have when fish are full grown. It's amazing how many fish you can have in a tank with a wet/dry filter, IME.

[wesleydnunder]

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. Wet/dry is not a panacea. If almost 45 years of fishkeeping has taught me nothing else, it has taught me that disasters happen suddenly and fewer issues arise with conservative stocking densities. I've used wet/dry filters and agree they do a good job. With that said, IME and IMO I wouldn't load that tank up that much.

Mark

[Kelli]

Mark: in your opinion. Do you think I could just keep one blue dolphin or will that be bad for the fish? I really REALLY wanted one/some. Or should I not keep some of the others that I listed so I can?

[Ballinxalex]

Mark: in your opinion. Do you think I could just keep one blue dolphin or will that be bad for the fish? I really REALLY wanted one/some. Or should I not keep some of the others that I listed so I can?

Personally I think u should keep what ever u want and how many u want bc it all comes down to how much filtration u have and the more filtration u got the more fish u can keep just keep ur tank in clean waters and u should be fine

[wesleydnunder]

Mark: in your opinion. Do you think I could just keep one blue dolphin or will that be bad for the fish? I really REALLY wanted one/some. Or should I not keep some of the others that I listed so I can?

According to the experts, you can keep all of what you plan. I'm much more conservative in my approach. I've kept heavily-stocked tanks with various forms of filtration over thew decades. In those tanks, when things go south, they do so in a hurry. When Ike hit I had 10 tanks going. My power was out for two weeks. Had my tanks been stocked as heavily as what you plan, I'm confident that I'd probably have lost everything. As it was, I lost one green fire tetra in my 125 gal discus tank. That was it. That tank also housed wild green discus, one of which is in my av. Every other fish in the house survived. Keeping one moorii probably won't break the bank. Like I said, it'll be a while before you have adult waste loads to deal with.

Mark

[wesleydnunder]

Personally I think u should keep what ever u want and how many u want bc it all comes down to how much filtration u have and the more filtration u got the more fish u can keep just keep ur tank in clean waters and u should be fine

To go with that, the more fish you keep, the more maintenance you're gonna do to keep them alive.

Mark

[SunnyHouTX]

I think you'll be very surprised to see how little maintenance I do to keep my overstocked tanks crystal clear and healthy besides the weekly water changes and cleaning a filter every now and then...

[mnemenoi]

Thanks Sunny! I appreciate your input! You have been so helpful! Anyone else have any suggestions?

I am interested in how the shellies do, I myself might try something like this if I were to have a large tank. Many times you have no idea how it will work out unless you try it. each fish is also an individual and growing them out together will certainly help in controlling aggression. We had a tiny (2") Frontosa in our tang tank and everyone, even the multifasciatus ran him in circles. Now, I'm certain if he grew out then he would have owned everyone in the tank. The occies would be my worry, but as I said in other threads they are much more aggressive and dominant and recommended for larger systems. They could work or might not, its a risk. I would agree about doing a Tang tank only, but I'm sure its my biotope zaniness coming through. Sevs can be cool, but are messy and big. In a high Ph system it means faster WC schedule and more filtration. Nitrates can be far deadlier in higher parameters and tangs like good water quality.

Either way let us know what you went with and next time someone will look and see how they did in your tank.

[wesleydnunder]

Kelli, here's my reasoning behind my posts:

First, I never said the tank would be overstocked, just heavily. There is truth to the mindset of adding filtration will allow you to add more fish. However, why do we filter?.. to keep the fishes' own wastes from poisoning the water and killing them outright. The more biofiltration on a tank, the more waste (ammonia) can be processed eventually into nitrate. Also, the faster the nitrates accumulate. Along with the nitrates, the biological processes going on in the tank produce many non-volatile acids and other compounds. Collectively, these are called Dissolved Organic Compounds (DOCs). These DOCs accumulate at roughly the same rate that Nitrates do. However, we can't go to the lfs and buy a DOC test so we use something we can test for as a general gauge of pollutants in the tank; nitrate.

When we stock a tank heavily, the biofilter(s) crank out the nitrates. Also, heterotrophic bacteria are constantly breaking down wastes and uneaten food and making more ammonia... more nitrate, more DOCs. Many of us try to keep our nitrates down to something around 20 ppm for planted tanks and try for less than 10 ppm in unplanted tanks. Some feel that 80 ppm is ok. I don't. That's a lot of nitrate and concomitant DOCs.

As I said in my earlier post, I believe your stocking list is heavy. As your fish grow they'll make more waste and eventual nitrate. You can test to see how quickly your nitrate accumulates to whatever your target value is and schedule your maintenance accordingly.

The reason I suggested not keeping shellies is they will be bite-sized when the fronts reach adulthood. Fronts are nocturnal benthic predators; they hunt at night. It may never be an issue and they may all get along fine if grown out together. They may also go the way the neons went in the angel tank.

I kept Hap. mooriis a few times... some are boisterous and always moving, like trophs. Some are mellow. I know they're not Haps any more but I quit trying to keep up with the taxonomists a while back.

Anywho, that's my $.05.

Whatever you decide to do, I suggest stocking slow and properly quarantining each new addition.

Mark

[danielp]

Fronts will try and eat it if they can. Ergo i wouldn't plan on the shellies.

I've got 9 fronts (started with 20) 8 clown loaches and 3 dither peacocks in my 125.

I did countless hours of research when setting up my front tank and continue to spend countless hours talking with mikeb144 (purchased my burundi from him) about keeping these guys. I think you have visited mike and have seen his tanks. Study them and query on "RonR" on this forum. These are the guys i have modeled my tank after.

I'll never disagree with a fish keeper and how they go about their business (with the exception of fishless tank cycling) on this forum because different things tick for different folks.

Front guys, trop guys, petro guys, community guys etc etc all have different things that make their respective bio systems work right for them.

Fish are the rewarding and pretty part of the tank. A proper ecological biosystem balance is the most important.

When setting up tank filtration i calculate a minimium 5x per hour turn over rate. On trop and heavily populated systems it shoud approach 8x + per hour.