Corys in Nano Tanks

[silvercory]

Nano tanks are gaining a lot of popularity in recent years and most articles suggest that pygmy Corydoras are suitable. I know that smaller volumes of water are harder to maintain but that aside I am interested to know is realistically if one was to have 3-6 pygmy Corys but no other fish what would be the minimal volume of water needed? Does the guide line of a centimetre of fish per litre of water still apply?

[MatsP]

There are half a dozen different "guides" for how much fish you can keep in a tank. The one you are looking for is 1cm per 2 liter or 1 inch per gallon (which comes to nearly the same thing).

Other guides use the volume or weight of the fish (more accurate, but harder to measure), or surface area of the tank.

I would aim to have a 10 gallon/40 liter tank, and keep perhaps 10 pygmy corys in it. Much smaller than that, and it gets quite hard to keep the water from getting too dirty too quickly.

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Mats

[jvision]

I have seen quite a few mods done to the Fluval Edge, so that it is plumbed with a sump (I've seen up to 10gal sumps). The Edge itself holds 6 gal, but adding a sump can increase the volume quite a bit, giving you better control. Most of the best DIY mods I've seen are on Reef sites.

[MatsP]

Yes, if, for some bizarre reason, you have more space under (or even above) the tank than where you want the actual tank to go, then a sump (or reverse sump - similar to a pond-filter) would be an option. But if you have space for a Fluval Edge, you almost certainly have space for a 50 x 30 x 30cm (20" x 12" x 12") standard size tank too - it's only abour 7 x 7 x 5cm larger, but it nearly doubles the volume from 26 to 45 liter...

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Mats

[silvercory]

I do like the look of the Fluvale Edge it dose look very modern but it looks a nightmare to maintain. I think there is very restricted access I am guessing you can only gain access thought the combined filter and light at the top. I not a big fan of tanks witch come with filters and bits included. I would much rather buy just the tank and then spec my own filters etc . I would never have thought of having a sump filter on a nano tank but that’s a really good idea. I am running four tanks at the moment thinking about a fifth but I just really like the idea of pygmy Corys in there own little world.