How close to fully stocked am I getting.

Gunsnroses

New member
My tank is 180 gallon (24×24×72) with a 50 gallon fuge and a 75 gallon sump. Total water volume after the 200lbs of rock is 230 gallons.
Right now I have:
1 Blue sided Wrasse
1 Dot Dash Wrasse
1 Sunset Fairy Wrasse
1 Royal Gramma
1 Midas Blenny
1 Diamond Goby
1 Skunk Shrimp
1 Emerald Green Crab
1 Banded Serpent Star
2 Ocellaris Clowns
2 Firefish
5 Green Chromis

I want to add a few more Wrasses and possibly a Yellow and Kole Tang.
I am about to buy my new lighting so I can start adding corals and I would like to add the Wrasses before then.
So how much more could I safely add given the adult size of the fish I already have?
 
I had originally planed to put a few larger fish in there, but I have grown to like the smaller guys.
I do want a Tang or two. I really like the Kole Tang. But I want to wait untill my setup is stable with the new lights and some corals before I get one. I have two or three wrasses in mind I want to add. But I don't want my tank to be overcrowded once I add corals and the existing fish get full grown.
 
Right now I am doing 10% water change once a week.
Filter socks changed every 3 days.
Skimmer cleaned once a week.
Sand vacuum every other water change.
So far this is working out great.
 
It's all about input and output. If your nitrate and phosphate levels are rising, even with 2 fish, you'd be 'overstocked'; if your levels are good, then with 30 fish you'd be fine. Water changes, big skimmer, refugium, ATS maybe ..... you could definitely add a bunch more fish. As I've noted elsewhere, I keep almost 40 fish (many decent sized) in my 265 and my waste levels are all very low.
 
I have been trying to get Nitrates down since I finished my cycle. I have no algae growing in my tank right now. I am hoping when I get my new lights, my algae will take off and my Nitrates will go down a bit.
I was stuck at 40ppm for ever. Just recently it was down to 20ppm. I started feeding less and that seemed to help a little.
But everyone in the tank is happy and healthy at the moment.
 
Got to say that I am absolutely sold on the ATS/Big Skimmer combination and I don't think I'd run a tank without both ever again. Particularly if a sizable fish population is your goal.
 
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