# 75 gallon stocking questions.



## zachary908 (Feb 12, 2011)

Hi all,

I'm in the process of setting up my new 75 gallon tank. I would like to have Discus, Rummy Nose Tetras, Cardinal Tetras, and Sterbai Cories.

It will be a heavily planted tank with a 20 gallon sump as the filtration. Inside the sump there are two spots for filter pads, normally I run a Carbon pad, and a some filter floss. It also has a compartment with tons of bio balls.

Now my question is, what kind of numbers do you guys think I'm looking at?

Thanks in advance,

Zach


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## johnny313 (Apr 15, 2011)

you cant have too many discus in a 75. they get pretty big. I would say 4 or 5 max and thats pushing it


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## cybercat (Jun 25, 2011)

I have 9 cory sterbai in my tank. They are doing a great job. Mine are still very small but they will be enough for this size tank. Forgot to mention it is also a 75 gal.


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## zachary908 (Feb 12, 2011)

Yeah, I definitely won't do any more than 5 discus. I was more looking for numbers on the smaller fish.


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## jhunt (May 7, 2010)

I have 20 glow light, 20 bloodfin tetras and 10 sterbai city's in my 75 gallon with 2 kribs, a striped Raphael catfish, 6 khuli loaches, 2 zebra loaches and 2 swordtails. I run a Marineland C-360 and a SuSun canister.


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## discuspaul (Jul 27, 2010)

You could easily do 7-8 discus in that tank, with a few dither fish.
If you're only going to keep 5 discus, then you can readily add say 6 each of rummy noses and sterbai cories, along with say 8 cardinals.
I have 10 sub-adult discus in a tank that size, along with about a dozen other fish, a few each of rasboras, cardinals, & cories, one SAE, plus a half dozen Amano shrimp. All in there close to a year now and all doing very well. Mind you, I have strong filtration, 2 -3 X weekly 60% wcs, and a religious tank cleansing/maintenance routine. 
Care to have a look ?:
http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums/h357/discuspaul/2tanks


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## zachary908 (Feb 12, 2011)

Okay, thanks for the input, guys. As I said before I do tend to overstock my tank, but I rarely if ever have fish loss. I over filtrate my tanks a ton. My sump has about a 5 gallon bucket of bio balls, a bag of carbon, and I also use filter floss. I'll be honest and say I don't do frequent water changes, and I do not generally test my water for anything unless I have a reason to. I know most people won't agree with that, and that's fine everyone has there own way of doing things, and this has worked well for me. I mainly try to keep things stable, and let the plants and the bacteria do there job. Anyway, who knows what numbers I will end up with. I may end up just keeping keeping the one discus I already have and getting about 25 of each dither fish. Not sure how many sterbais

Nice pictures, Discus paul!


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## discuspaul (Jul 27, 2010)

Let us know what your eventual stocking decision is, Zach, and post some pics for us to have a look at. Best of luck.


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## reignOfFred (Jun 7, 2010)

I also never test my water - it really just isn't necessary once we have the grasp of what's going on. The good thing is that in a heavily planted tank the water will be much better then without the plants, which is great for the discus. I would go with 10 corys, 6 juvi discus, and maybe 12 cardinals or 10 rummynose - I would only go with one schooler because the discus really thrive best in a tank not crammed to the gills with fish - and keeping in mind how much space is being used by plants as well.


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## zachary908 (Feb 12, 2011)

Thanks for the response, reignOfFred. Glad to see someone else follows my leave it be approach of fish keeping. Yeah, I see what you mean about letting the Discus have there space. I may just stick with the Discus I have currently, because I would really like to have a nice school or two of tetras. Who knows, I may completely change my mind on stocking all together . But if I had everything 100% planned out it this adventure wouldn't be near as fun!


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## zachary908 (Feb 12, 2011)

I ended up going with 25 rummy nose, and 25 cardinals. Here is a link to my Journal, let me know what you guys think of the scape so far!

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/t...10-zachary-908s-75-gallon-journal-update.html


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## bearcowski (Jun 6, 2010)

discuspaul said:


> You could easily do 7-8 discus in that tank, with a few dither fish.
> If you're only going to keep 5 discus, then you can readily add say 6 each of rummy noses and sterbai cories, along with say 8 cardinals.
> I have 10 sub-adult discus in a tank that size, along with about a dozen other fish, a few each of rasboras, cardinals, & cories, one SAE, plus a half dozen Amano shrimp. All in there close to a year now and all doing very well. Mind you, I have strong filtration, 2 -3 X weekly 60% wcs, and a religious tank cleansing/maintenance routine.
> Care to have a look ?:
> http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums/h357/discuspaul/2tanks


Paul,
Nice clean tank!
I was wondering what type water do you fill with?
regular tap treated with conditioner???

Thanks


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## discuspaul (Jul 27, 2010)

Yes, just conditioned tap water. Our tap water has around 7.0 + pH, and gradually settles in to the tank between 6.6- 6.8.


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