A few good points.
Most people think the stocking calculator was a bit liberal and I spent a lot of time fighting battles about it before! The previous stocking calculator was more realistic and accurate for many reasons, but many people did not like it!
However, being stubborn won't help me so I have to listen to the majority and I think the solution might be simply to have two stocking values with a FAQ icon to explain the difference. (I will use FAQ icons throughout the CC to explain different bits.)
Re Color Coding:
I have seen countless systems with color coding which don't work. Most shops have color coded labels which don't work. The problem with many fish is that they are too complex to fit into such tight categories. Typical examples are things like Guppies which are considered easy and would be a green, but they are also prone to bacterial problems so are actually not a great fish to start with. Also fish like Black Neons which are peaceful and will mix with anything, but put them with a male guppy and theres a good chance they will nip the guppy.
In this case we have two easy to keep, peaceful, small, 'green' fish which don't get along.
However, there are some fish which have virtually no issues, like white cloud minnows, and it would be good to mark these out as good starter fish.
Minimum length:
This definately needs doing. I can do a simple system whereby you enter tank Length and Volume. Volume can be used to work out stocking while length can be used to work out a max fish size. I wont do width, height etc.. or it gets too crowded.
The CC originally worked out volume from tank dimensions, but of course this only worked for rectangular tanks, so it got switched to just asking for volume
Shrimps & Inverts
These def need more detailing
Biotope,
I will introduce a new search system which will have search by region
Filters are a tricky issues, since one of the factors which determines your stocking level is the quality of your filter, but all filters rated at a certain volume are not equal. The adjustment of filter type is what increased stocking level above the base norm. I will keep this but attempt to explain it better.
I have been working on the layout template so I will try and get this done and then everyone can have a look at the non-functioning template page.