Am I maxed out on my fish load?

[mutualbill]

I have a 150 (60x24x24) with a 45 gallon sump and a 20 gallon refugium. I do a 15 gallon water change weekly and Octopus NW200 recirculating skimmer. I also run GFO in a reactor 24/7 and carbon in a separate reactor 24/7. The tank has been running for 2 years. I was curious if I had hit my max fish limit or not. Here is my current fish stock. This is a reef tank btw.

Pair of mated ORA percula clowns
one flame hawkfish
one spotted mandarin
one male lyretail anthia
one christmas wrasse (5 inches)
one royal gramma
one pacific blue tang (5 inches)
one yellow tang (4 inches)
one bristletooth tang (5 inches) unsure of species

Let me know. Reason I ask is because I was considering adding a few female lyretails for the male but didn't want to overdo my bioload. I have a mix of SPS/LSP. I only occasionally have hair algae pop up in one spot on 1 rock but that only happens when its time to change my GFO. Once I change it it goes away .

 

[mutualbill]

bump

 

[black_majik]

The SPS will not like the extra bioload I wouldn't do further.

 

[mutualbill]

Wanting as many opinions as possible, anybody else? Is it the skimmer?

 

[BangkokMatt]

IMO you will be ok adding a few anthias as long as you think your skimmer is up to the job. I have a 150g which is more stocked than yours and everything is happy.

 

[mrwilson]

I agree that the limiting factor will more likely be bioload, rather than swimming room or aggressiveness-type issues. Barebottom or DSB? What do you keep in your fuge for nutrient export? Do your nitrates always test zero or near-zero? How easily could you turn that weekly 15-gallon change into a 30-gallon change if it was needed? Those are some of the issues I'd be considering.

 

[yoboyjdizz]

I think you would be fine atleast 3 females would be a nice addition for your male.

 

[mutualbill]

I have caulerpa and chaeto in my refugium. I could easily change 30 gallons a week if needed. My nitrates are always at 0 or near 0.

 

[mutualbill]

Matt, unfortunately my skimmer is not quite as robust as yours. Alas, I don't have $1,000 to spend on a skimmer atm.

 

[mrwilson]

Another thing about adding anthias is that because you will want to feed them fairly frequently, probably at least twice a day, they are a bit more bioload-heavy than some other similarly-sized fish. However, if you think your skimmer is good enough to handle it, and doing heftier water changes is readily do-able, I can't see why you shouldn't be fine with adding them.

 

[flameangel88]

I don't see any problem in adding a few female lyretails at the moment especially with your weekly WC. The concern is the bioload down the road with additional feedings and the growing blue tang. Your wrasse and other tangs are't going to grow that much more but your blue still has a long way to go.

I know my nitrate shot up after adding couple of genicantus angels and borbonius anthias because of the required additional daily feedings. I'm doing more frequent WCs to compensate.