Need more help; wife nixed initial plan

[player676]

Women...

After showing my wife my fish ideas and showing her some options, she decided that we should have a reef tank. She thinks the smaller fish are "cuter". Since she shares in the tank work I think I am going to give in...kind of.

For those of you who didnt follow my original questions, and I apologize to those of you who helped me out. I hope you dont think it was a waste. I still may get my wish with a second tank. The tank in question is 180g. It will have about 300-350 lbs of live and base rock. I am not at the coral research stage, although I understand thats how I reef works For now I am just focusing on the fish. Basically because thats where my wife wants to focus for now. She isn't the best multi-tasker

So here is where I need help. She wants small fish, I like the bigger ones. I know nothing about gobies, blennies, etc. No idea if there are good or bad beginner ones. My initial focus was having 4-6 big fish and just having a FOWLR. My initial reefsafe list looks like this. Any advice on additions, subtractions or replacements would be appreciated. Please keep in mind that I want to have inverts, especially cleaner shrimp. After seeing some of the tank pictures here, they seem so cool:

Purple Tang
Kole Tang
Foxface Lo
Yellow Stripe Maroon Clown
4-5 Chromis (for school purposes, can you mix colors?)

I think gobies, blennies and wrasses are cool but that could be one place where I get some help. I also know angels are hit or miss, but a flame angel is something I've always liked.

Thanks in advance everyone. People here have been so cool it makes me grateful I live in this area.

Mike

 

[Moe_K]

Damn! I just typed a huge response and lost it by somehow hitting the keyboard hotkeys to "back"

Get Scott Michael's pocket sized Marine Fishes.

Tons of pics and excellent advice on reef compatability.

Think about the order of stocking. Purple tangs can be bullies. Should be one of the past fish introduced. Clowns can also be aggressive.

I will suggest fairy & flasher wrasses. They're beautiful, peaceful, and generally reef-safe.

Blennies & gobies are also generally cool customers. Can go in first.

Good luck.

 

[player676]

I'll look in to that book, thanks.

I was planning on the Tang last, I have heard that about them.

Just a curiosity question. Does the 1 inch per 5g change with smaller fish like chromis, wrasses, gobies and blennies or is it still the same?

Thanks again!

 

[NateHanson]

Unfortunately, rules like that are completely useless in my opinion. Even just as a ballpark idea, I just think it's not a meaningful way to plan stocking.

 

[player676]

I always thought it was a good ballpark figure. If I may ask, how do you know if you're tank is overstocked. With freshwater, it was kind of easy. You could just tell. With reef tanks, it seems much harder because there are more parameters to control. I would appreciate your thoughts on how to know. To me (and the wife), the more fish the better, especially the little guys.

 

[NateHanson]

It depends on a lot of things, like the total water volume, amount of LR, and skimmer capacity, as well as the characteristics and sizes of the fish themselves.

A sure way to know you're overstocked is that you have ammonia or nitrite readings, but you're up a creek if that's your first sign. Climbing nitrates are a more subtle (and less disastrous) sign that you may need to cut down on your fish load, but it could also just be that you're overfeeding, or even that your water source is contaminated.

You'll also notice more algae problems with too many fish, and coral health will suffer.

In short. It's not so hard to tell when a tank is OVERstocked. The hard thing is telling when a tank is stocked pretty full but not overstocked. If things are healthy with a bunch of fish, nitrates are single digits, and corals are happy, the temptation is to add a few more fish. At somepoint though, you go too far and tip the balance.

I guess you just have to take it slowly, get to know your tank, stock conservatively, and feel it out as you go along. Not too helpful, eh? Sorry.

 

[NateHanson]

I always thought it was a good ballpark figure.

For example, two 5" tangs in (5x5x2=50) a 50 gallon tank is asking for trouble. That's too much fish, IMO, not to mention the fact that they'll be miserable in a tank that size.

On the other hand 5 little 2" chromis would be WAY understocked in that same 50g tank.

I just don't think fish length has much relationship to bioload impact. Maybe fish mass would be a better rule of thumb. But guessing weights is not easy.

 

[player676]

I understand what you're saying. I guess the best thing I can do is add fish slowly over time and come here and ask if I'm overstocked based on the water and filtration parameters. I definitely wont trust myself early on. I'll trust the great people here to help me out.

Thanks again Nate. You've at least given me a place to start.

 

[TomD]

I think after a while you get a feel for it and no when you are overstocked. At least I did.

Like Nate stated it depends on alot of things but I think the biggest for Reef besides filtration and skimming is what kind you are going for. I would stolk an all SPS tank less then an LPS followed by softy's.

 

[NateHanson]

I'll bet others who have had the good fortune to keep a tank the size of yours can give you more specific input. You're a little out of my league, as the most fish I've kept was about 6, and that was in a 65g (with 55g sump).

I'm pretty sure you can keep a LOT more fish than that.

Good luck, Nate