over stocking

[Stalactite]

Hi, i'm a bit confused about stocking. I've got two clowns Black & White Ocellaris Clownfish - Tank-Bred in my 65 G and planing to add a Kole Yellow Eye Tang and a Sailfin/Algae Blenny to it. And i'm told by some that its alright and i still got room. My understanding was 1 inch/ 5 G of water. And even with that i'm a bit over in my tank. Is there another way of stocking i don't know about?

 

[saltwatercityma]

Thera are no magic formulas-some fish are heavy bodied some are torpedo shaped some are very big but sedentary and others just need space.

 

[evsalty]

A lot depends on your complete setup not just tank size. If you have a quality large skimmer then that helps and a large and good sump setup will help too plus adds to the system volumn. Then there is swim room needs for certain fish (that tang will be fine if your tank is 48" long). Also how much rock work comes into play. A good qty of good rock can help with filtration but too much rock will reduce swim room and can also end up trapping a lot of detris.

 

[JHemdal]

None of the "inches of fish per water voume" calculations will work. As the length of the fish increases linearly, its mass increases by the cube. For example, you can put ten 1" neon tetras in a ten gallon tank, but try to add one ten inch oscar to the same tank(grin).

Jay

 

[Stalactite]

set up

set up

Ok well, i have a octopus recirculating 150 Skimmer ( good for a 180G), 2 vortech powerheads, carbon and phosban reactor. My concern is more over the tanks space right now. My sum is 29 G with rock and a fuge of also 29 G with cheato and rocks the return is a Eheim 1262, 910GPH .

 

[Stalactite]

wrasses

wrasses

Would McCosker's Flasher Wrasse couple, or 2 female and a male would be too much for my system, with the clowns and Blenny?

 

[MM WI]

You are approaching this wrong by looking for an equation. It is posible but risky to run tanks well above the recommendations. A better question would be what would indicate an overstocked tank.

Indications of an overstocked tank wouild be high dissolved organic, low oxygen, measurable NH4 or high NO3, fragil easily infected fish. If none of these are indicated you can safely add more fish. Just remember as you approach your carrying capacity the quicker things will go wrong if there is an equipment failure or power outage or some other accident.

There are techniques that will can allow you to keep significantly more bioload that what will be recommended in this forum. The risk associated with this is that the more you push the limits the quicker things can go wrong.

Know your limitations. Err on the side of caution to avoid a potential costly problem until your experience increases your confidence level.

- Mark