AQADVISOR, TRUSTWORTHY???!!!

[Kingster]

So i was on aq advisor, I was just getting a plain bare bones look at a stocking Idea, went i added 4 bolivion rams, it said Warning: Your selected species may eventually require 128% of your aquarium space. You may need to deal with territorial aggressions later on.



weirded out by this I tried something:
My stocking list with no ERRORS:

My stocking list with plus 4 bolivion rams:

ERROR: Your selected species may eventually require 125% of your aquarium space. You may need to deal with territorial aggressions later on. Try removing some of (Uaru amphiacanthoides, Corydoras aeneus, Atya gabonensis, Geophagus surinamensis, Apistogramma agassizii, Mikrogeophagus altispinosus) or get a larger tank.
And IF I REMOVE THE 3 REDSTRIPED EArTEATER EACH 12 INCHs LONG AND NEED PERFECT WATER QUILITY!!!:

ERROR:

• Warning: Albino Cory may become food for Uaru Cichlid.

• Warning: When Uaru Cichlid starts to breed, they may become too aggressive to co-exist with Albino Cory.

• Warning: Your selected species may eventually require 117% of your aquarium space. You may need to deal with territorial aggressions later on. Try removing some of (Uaru amphiacanthoides, Corydoras aeneus, Atya gabonensis, Apistogramma agassizii, Mikrogeophagus altispinosus) or get a larger tank.

My 120 gallon at 20 bolivion rams:

ERROR:Warning: Your selected species may eventually require 187% of your aquarium space. You may need to deal with territorial aggressions later on. Try removing some of (Mikrogeophagus altispinosus) or get a larger tank.

Honestly aqadvisor is really great tool, but did the devs make these guys 12" long or something? This is the problem with many is not all dwarf cichlids. But hey I still love it, and if someone can contact the devs to get this fixed please do. It works well for most of my other fish. Just really need to know how it may turn out.

 

[Kingster]

Sorry here are the pics In order

 

[TwoHedWlf]

I can't see any of the images you've linked, but the recommendation doesn't seem far off. 20 rams seems excessive for a 120g tank.

 

[Kingster]

I can't see any of the images you've linked, but the recommendation doesn't seem far off. 20 rams seems excessive for a 120g tank.

20 3 inch fish is 187% overstocked for a 120-gallon tank, I am new to the hobby do these fish need 10 gals each or something, are they killers that is banned to post on youtube?

 

[Jexnell]

So what you are not getting is that unlike grouping fish like tetras and such, cichlids need a good amount of space or terriory as thier own, even more so when breeding. They will run off or fight sometimes to the death anything that comes in thier area.

Before the divider, the tiny Cons were keeping the way bigger Oscar in 1/4 of the tank. The tiny dots in the sand behind the cons are fry.

So as soon as all them cichlids start breeding it will turn into a warzone.

 

[JohnnyHyde]

I don't see a point in all those calculators, since they miss too many factors:

- Live plants or not, what kind of those, how much light
- Rocks, driftwood - how much shelters, "eye contact dividers"
- Fish - youngsters or full-grown adults?
- Maybe it's a bare tank like in food stores?
- With filtration - again - how many live plants, which species, how much substrate, how much overall surface in your aquarium for BB? Even, maybe you changed some media in your default filter?
- Changing water not weekly? weekly? one time in a month? every other day? 10% 15% 50%?
- Temperature? ferts? algae?
- Character of your particular fish?
- and one of the most important: overfeeding? almost underfeeding? 1 time per 2 days, everyday? twice per week?

I would say just get what you want, make your research online and see how it all goes. In case there will be too overcrowded - maybe you can give back to LFS or even give the fish to someone else?
Calculators are situations like this: you want to know what kind of species (plants or whatever) can live in your local lake. You input the overall diameters of your lake, and calculator shows you what grows in the same territory square in the middle of the ocean or in the middle of a river.

 

[Hendre]

Not very useful. I am apparently over 160% stocked but my tank is right as rain water-quality wise. Cichlids like their space

 

[Gourami Swami]

That advice from the calculator iss actually not bad. First stocking list looks OK to me. Though generally I say calculators are crap, talk to people who know what they're talking about. 20 rams does sound like a bit much to me in a 5' tank. They are territorial as stated already, aggression is the issue not the bioload/size of fish.

 

[duanes]

I agree that the calculator is pretty well on in a generic way, but for me, it is a bit conservative.
To me, a pair of adult Uaru, need at least 100 gallon between them, and if you add Geophagines, then you are in my book pushing the envelope, not counting the others.
I consider an adult group/or pair of cichlids, to need 10 gallons per inch minimum.
So for me a pair of Uaru, and a few Geophagines, need a long (6ft) tank of about 150 gallons.
Add more species, and for me, maybe a 210.
And not just for water quality, the Geos, and Rams are all a bit territorial, and are all basically bottom dwellers, so by adding 20 rams, the available space per fish, or per pair is quite tiny.

 

[J. H.]

My kribensis pair rule my 55 with an iron fist. They are constantly breeding, and will not allow my angels into the bottom third of one half of the tank most of the time. I suspect that adding another cichlid pair would result in a death battle, definitely two new pairs would, and my angels are far from full grown. This is what my tank looks like:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=19H2MeBofxPoN55_t1yxg6X579GYxdEAZ
The kribs use the whelk shell as their home. I think most people would call the tank heavily planted. You could get a lot of cyprinids or characins into that 120, in addition to a few pairs of small cichlids, but not a lot of cichlids.