if your little con when into the filter well you gotta get him out. the mech filter will have caught him. this way you'll know if he's there or your o ate him.

when your fish get bigger you'll run into trouble with your nitrates and keeping them down.

try to picture 2 10" oscar 2 8" plecs a 4" con and your clown loaches in your tank. would you consider it overstocked. these might be how big your fish are in about 9 months

you can keep many fish in a small tank if your willing to do the maintainace.(ie water changes 2-3 times per week)

i understand in what ur saying that i will have to do regular water changes i do at least 20% every week,is that ok ?????

well like i said in my last thread that i took the sand out so that it didnt go in my filter, and now i have put some of my old gravel in for the time being, it looks alot better than it did with just a bare tank and no substrate, well this is how my tank looks at the moment and its going to stay that way untill my o's get alot bigger

as for my internals when will it be ok for me to take at least one of them out???
i ask because some ppl have told me that a week will be fine, then other ppl say that i must leave them in for at least a month????
wats the truth behind this?????
i was thinking that it has nearlly been a week so i could take one of them out wat you fink??

usually whenever i change filters i try to leave the old one on for at least 2 weeks to give the bacteria some to grow in the new filter. then i just keep an eye on my ammonia and nitrite to be sure the dont spike

as for your water changes use your nitrate reading to tell you when it needs changing

It wont do any harm to leave the internal filters in for longer. If you are not sure then leave them in for a longer time

The easiest was to tell if you are doing enough water changes is to test weekly before a water change. If your nitrates are above 40 then you need to do more/bigger water changes