How much fish can I have?

[Lazeelee]

I am planning on setting up my first s/w reef tank and have just purchased a 70g bow front tank.
I have read that 120cm2 of surface area is needed for every cm of fish body length.
Does this rule allow for growth? I imagine it doesn't. So do I plan using the maximum fish lengths given in books even though my fish may not grow to that size?
Also how do inverts affect this?
I'm sure this is the most basic of questions so any advice would be really appreciated.

 

[boxfishpooalot]

Think of eveything living to use up somthing and export somthing else. Fish eat, breath, and poo. = ammonia,nitrate, nitrites. And Co2 wich can lower the ph by masking its equilbriated value.

I would not use that rule because there is too many variables to cause an effect. If you have sufficient filtration to accomadate the right fish water quality will be fine. But if you use the wrong filtration water quality will be poor, regardless of how many fish you have in there.

So really it comes down to your filtration capactiy to determine how many fish you can have crammed in that 70gallon of yours. For that size tank I would stay at say 5 small fish, and maybee 2 larger fish max.

So tell us what kind of mechanical filtration do you have?Sandbed or bare glass? Live rock, and how many #s?

 

[snakeklr]

[welcome]
lazeelee

 

[bertoni]

For a 70 gallon bow tank, if it's set up with good filtration, 6 medium-sized fish (like royal-gramma-sized) would be a conservative stocking level. I've seen heavier stocking levels that worked well.

 

[Lazeelee]

I'm gonna be going for sand bed with approx 60-70lbs of L/R.
Aqua c remora skimmer and fluval 304 external filter.

 

[bertoni]

If you want to keep a reef, you'll likely want to remove all the media except the carbon from the Fluval.

I think with that setup, the stocking level I gave would be very conservative. Most people would put more in the tank. Building up the fish population slowly, maybe one fish per month, should help you keep the tank stable.

If you have any specific stocking ideas, we might be able to comment more.

 

[Lazeelee]

Thanks bertoni, haven't really got any specifics yet just wanted to see what my tank will allow.