How many rummynose and maybe ghost shrimp with my discus

[SusieQ]

Hi everyone... Well I finally decided I want to add a group of mellow schooling fish to the 120 gallon (4x2x2) moderately planted, driftwood and pfsand substrate, discus tank. Since rummeynoses are my fav, I got 11 from the lfs and put them in qt.. They did well and today I took them out of qt and added them to the tank,
At first they ran and hid in the plants to get away from the big monsters lookind down at them.. But the discus ignored them.. we will see how it goes after lights out but I think it will be fine.
Tank specs... 120 gallon 4x2x2
2 xp3 cannister filters
wc every few days thanks to new python
ph 6.8, am o, ni 0, nitrates 5-7 temp 83/84
8 semi adult discus ( 2 of which are a proven pair)
1 regular bristlenose
1 albino bristlenose
11 rummeynose as of today
I want a larger school but don't want to max out the biolad as we tend to get occasional power outages up here in the mountains. And while we have a generator.. it is manual and we don't start it up unless power has been out for over and hour or 2.. I do have a battery operated airline however that can last for quite some time.
Sooo.. how many more rummeys can I add if that's all that I will be adding to the tank??
What if I also want to add some ghost/glass shrimp?? How many shrimp.. would they affect the bioload much??? Thanks Sue :D :D

[ILLUSN]

you could throw another 30 rummy noses in there and not upset your bioload.

(my 4x1.5x2 rainbow tank 8 adult rainbows, 6 adult bristlenoses, 30 rummynoses, 30 cardinals, 1 upside down catfish & 3 adult SAE's filtration eheim 2228 NO3 is still under 10 after a week, the time between water changes)

I'd avoid the shrimp as they will be lunch for the discus.

[SusieQ]

HI Illusn... Thanks for the feedback.
So far the rummys are doing just fine thankyou... they are schooling all over the tank and the discus are not at all interested in"lunch"..LOL Guess I feed them pretty good..LOL.. Anyways.. gonna up the school and get another batch of rummys going in qt... I think a large school like you have would be awesome... I love how they look schooling around. The discus are still a bit shy around them, as is their nature, but everyone's eating so I guess they will soon be used to each other.. Guess the rainbows didn't have this issue.. The discus don't quite know what to think of the flake food the rummys dash for but as long as they still have their tetrabits etc that the rummys leave alone for now,they are happy. Gonna take your advice and forget the shrimp idea.. Can't wait to see the rummys in a large school.. You think I could do 30???Thanks again Sue.. :D :D :D

[ILLUSN]

rummys are a nice small fish that dont eat that much or produce that much waste, a school of 30 would sit nice in your tank.

[Greggy]

I love Rummy Noses! They school even better than cardinals (well mine do anyway) and you know if they have bright red faces that your water quality is pretty good. Currently I have 13 Rummy Nose tetras, about 35 Cardinals and about 20 Black Neon tetras in my 6x2x2 Discus display tank. I am going to increase the number of Rummy Noses to about 20 or 30 when I get around to it.

And no worries with bio-load for me either, as an Eheim 2250 Classic and an Eheim 2228 Professional take care of that! :) I do one 50% WC per week and all is good.

Regards,

Greggy

[SusieQ]

Hi all ... well I did it.. I now have 30 rummys with my discus and all are happy. Watching the huge school of rummys is almost hypnotic...
The discus do not view them as "lunch"... however the "horde" of fast moving rummys made a quick snack of the discus pairs eggs.. it was really funny watching the discus trying to defend their eggs.. they had no chance LOL.. The pair had in the past gotten the eggs to the free swimming stage but since I have no desire or space to breed them right now I just let them practice and the eggs get eaten.. The rummys had a feast... They are fantastic mates for the discus.
Just wanted to thank everyone for the advice.. will get pics up as soon as I figure out how to take a pic.. Sue :D :D :D