How many Fish can I have in my Aquarium? By Lev Ingman

Lots of people and stores will tell you that you can determine the number of fish you can have by the size of your tank, saying something along of, “you can keep 2 inches of fish per gallon of water.” This is simply not true!!!! Do not determine how many fish you can keep by following a foolish rule like that. The more often you do quality maintenance and the larger your aquarium the more fish you can have.  The best indicator you can use is to test your nitrate levels. Your nitrate level will be at its worse immediately before you do your routine water change, so test it to see how bad it gets. If your nitrates are above 50ppm at its worst then we do not recommend adding more fish. If you decide that you are willing to commit to doing more routine maintenance, usually by doing larger more frequent water changes, then the nitrate level at its worse will decrease and you can add more fish.  You fish will generally survive with higher nitrate levels but it is not optimal. Using nitrate levels to determine if you can add more fish is usually the best way to go about it.

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