Hi guys,

During the past couple of months of my spare time, I have developed a site that attempts to help aquarium hobbyists figure out how much fish you can add to your tanks. It does much more than relying on simple "inches per gallon" rule. I take everyone's suggestions and try to address them through weekly builds.

If you are interested in this sort of thing, try it out and post your feedback on this thread!

Try this link: www.aqadvisor.com

I'm a techie at heart so it doesn't look pretty visually. :)

Wowzaz! If it works it will be useful. I'll have a play later

Looks good! Missing some of the species I have though
Great idea

I've just tried this calculator with my tank and I am 77%stocked and reccomended to change 33% of the water weekly. Nice Calculator.

Just giving it a test;-
Couldn't find eheim aquaballs in the filters list.
Amano Shrimp are listed with the old scientific name (Cardina multidentata now)
American Flagfish not found (Jordanella floridae)
Banded Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia trifasciata) not found
Featherfin Catfish (Synodontis eupterus) not found

Despite this it told me my 220L tank was at 139% stock - ie overstocked. Yes technically it is but it also advised a 70% per week water change.
If this was really required it should be advising a bigger tank.

I removed the tetra (12), Otos(8), Glass Catfish (7) and Amano Shrimp(6) from my total and this told me I was at 97% stock level but still advised 47% per week water changes. It's my opinion that these recommendations are far too high.

It is also my opinion that the recommended PH range of 6-7.8 was a little too wide for the stock selected (Cory and Neon Tetra should not be in PH 7.8)

I think if I'd got my full stock list entered it would have been around 150% recommended stock level and I know from experience that I can easily maintain water quality in this tank with 25% weekly water changes. This may be partly due to my use of re mineralised RO water so I'm not adding nitrates or DOCs and also due to the heavy planting and pressurised CO2 to enhance the plants growth and use of unwanted elements.

Overall it shows a lot of promise, it gave an aggression alert for having a pictus with tetra and an alert for incompatible temperatures. As the disclaimer says it is a help but further research is required by the keeper.

Hope that helps

This is a brilliant idea. I've got a few constructive suggestions- how about a warning about stocking gradually to avoid ammonia spikes and a link to fishless cycling instructions (we've got a good article ), also a warning that a stocking calculator is not a replacement for a proper water testing routine.

I tried having a play and it said that 2 fancy goldfish would outgrow my 37 gallon tank not sure I agree with that. I'm all for understocking but surely a 4 ft tank is OK for a pair?

Very interesting

My set up shows aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 93%. Recommended water change schedule: 13% per week. Your aquarium stocking level is 42%

I always understock though so no surprise. Couldn't find the Juwel tank sizes though (very popular) nor the internal juwel filters listed so I couldn't 'add' the secondary filtration, although my Eheim Ecco was there. More playing needed but very good would be my first impression.

If there are any species missing let me know! :)

A couple of mine missing: Brochis splendens, Synodontis euptera.
It has great potential I think. Maybe you could make some kind of a partnership with Admin on this site and make it look realy nice and have some moderators and advisors to update the info?

> Couldn't find eheim aquaballs in the filters list.
Amano Shrimp are listed with the old scientific name (Cardina multidentata now)
> American Flagfish not found (Jordanella floridae)
> Banded Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia trifasciata) not found
> Featherfin Catfish (Synodontis eupterus) not found

All of the above have been noted down. Will be included in the future build.

> Despite this it told me my 220L tank was at 139% stock - ie overstocked. Yes technically it is but it also advised a 70% per week water change.
> If this was really required it should be advising a bigger tank.

Good idea.

> I removed the tetra (12), Otos(8), Glass Catfish (7) and Amano Shrimp(6) from my total and this told me I was at 97% stock level but still advised 47% per week water changes. > It's my opinion that these recommendations are far too high.

Without knowing your species its a bit hard to make any comment. So far, feedback has been pretty good as far as water change schedule goes. It is based on total bioload. Long tanks hold more fishes than tall tanks hence same 20g tank may not recommend same volume of water changes.

> It is also my opinion that the recommended PH range of 6-7.8 was a little too wide for the stock selected (Cory and Neon Tetra should not be in PH 7.8)

I'll adjust pH for those guys. I do agree with you although I have kept Neons and Cories in pH 7.6 without any ill effect for more than 3 years.

> I think if I'd got my full stock list entered it would have been around 150% recommended stock level and I know from experience that I can easily maintain water quality in this tank with 25% weekly water changes. This may be partly due to my use of re mineralised RO water so I'm not adding nitrates or DOCs and also due to the heavy planting and pressurised CO2 to enhance the plants growth and use of unwanted elements.

Yes and everyone's mileages may vary too. I too have had one that's around 130% stocked (mbuna tank) without any ill effect but I did do more water changes than yours. I am curious what species you have in your tank though.

> Overall it shows a lot of promise, it gave an aggression alert for having a pictus with tetra and an alert for incompatible temperatures. As the disclaimer says it is a help but further research is required by the keeper.

Yes it is in its early stage of development. Adding features is one thing but getting the knowledge database right is something else. I currently have more than 40 attributes per each species and have been implementing rules in the code to use those attributes. If attributes are not accurate then the program won't report them accurately. I am always looking for comments like "this fish should be....".