How heavily stocked with fish is your SPS tank?

[JP SPS]

Just curious as to how heavy you guys are stocking your tanks with fish. I am now up to a combination of 15 anthias and chromis in a 125 and think I might be pushing the limit. I have seen other SPS tanks that seemed way more crowded than mine, and others were you have a hard time finding the fish. How do you all stock your tanks?

 

[LoJack]

I stock heavily. I skim heavy, feed heavy, use GFO … and the tank is doing great.

I've been reading lots of articles about how fish waste is the best coral food … I have to agree. I feed as much as possible without running into nutrient issues. I use an overrated skimmer (300 gallon skimmer on a 150 gallon tank) and will add GFO when ever phosphates rise up and the chaeto can't manage it on it's own.

I used to run an ultra low nutrient set up … very few fish, fed sparingly … skimmed like crazy, ran carbon and GFO … and found my colours lacked. Now my colours have never been better.

I'm not recommending my way … just letting you know whats working for me.

 

[JP SPS]

I stock heavily. I skim heavy, feed heavy, use GFO "¦ and the tank is doing great.

I've been reading lots of articles about how fish waste is the best coral food "¦ I have to agree. I feed as much as possible without running into nutrient issues. I use an overrated skimmer (300 gallon skimmer on a 150 gallon tank) and will add GFO when ever phosphates rise up and the chaeto can't manage it on it's own.

I used to run an ultra low nutrient set up "¦ very few fish, fed sparingly "¦ skimmed like crazy, ran carbon and GFO "¦ and found my colours lacked. Now my colours have never been better.

I'm not recommending my way "¦ just letting you know whats working for me.

I'm a lot like you. My 125 has a skimmer rated for 300 gallons. I run carbon, gfo, biopellets and am pretty heavily stocked. My corals seem to be doing better now than they were when I had a few fish and fed sparringly. I think my nutrients were too low. I love all the action of the anthias and chromis.

 

[jda]

120G:
Watanabei Pair (going to the 240G soon)
2x Leopard Wrasse
Huge Peppermint Shrimp (counts against bioload)
Female Bellus
Purple Tang
4x Bartletts
3x Lyretail
Lubbocks Wrasse

I feed the fish enough so that they grow and are healthy and not aggressive - some call this overfeeding, but I call it normal.

 

[Dog boy Dave]

I have one 7 inch by 2 inch thick Emperator Angel, (8 years old) one 5 inch Majestic Angel, ( 9 years old) one 4 inch Golden Flake, (6 years old)one 4 inch Regal Angel, (2 years old) one two inch Golden Angel (5 years old) One large 6 inch Copperband,(8 years old) one very large 7 inch rabbit fish (8 years old). One Powder Blue 6 inch bout 7 years old, one Purple tang about 7 years old, one yellow tang about 7 years old and one Sail Fin bout the size of a small plate thats 8 years old. They are in a 325 gallon SPS only tank and I feed them very heavy. Daily they get 1/2 sheet of nori, 4 to 6 broccoli florets, and a piece of squid the size of a large grape. The tank is high nutrient and algae will grow in most places if the fish dont graze there. Nutrient export is through heavy skimming, macro algae harvesting and until recently a 7 inch snd bed that takes up most of a 75 gallon tank. That sand bed has been up and running about 9 to 10 years or so. As the fish have grown and feeding has increased i have needed to increase nutrient export and so recently added another 46 by 46 inch 5 inch sand bed that has room above it for mangroves. I have added 30 mangroves to the system and am growing out 30 or so more seed pods. Since the addition of the new sandbed the corals are looking better than they have in the recent last years or so.