1 -1.5 mg/l (daily) NH3 production for a normally stocked non planted tank fed normally with a good quality pellet food. Normal stocking - concerning Malawi cichlids - is about 4-5 liters / cm of fish length which becomes 5-6 liters for fish sized over 20 cm. Normal feeding means whatever the fish will eat within 90 seconds.
In any case, if you have a matured filter capable of dealing with 2-3 mg/L NH3 on a daily basis it will be able to cope with 4 mg/l of NH3 in a day or two. If you stock your tank immediately with a full fish load, then just refrain from feeding on the first day and sparingly on the second. The filter will adjust very easily.
If you severely overstock your tank, the filtration system will be at the edge, no matter how matured it is. IN this case you will run into problems (water quality, disease outbreaks) sooner or later simply because the internal or canister filters do not "create" a "virtually" larger system.
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