overstocked.com

[Donnie2112]

So I'm figuring that I'm a bit overstocked in my 120 gallon reef. Ok maybe a lot overstocked. The tank has about 300 lbs of live rock in it, a 7 inch sand bed, 18 gallon sump/refugium with calearpa and magic mud with a sand cap. The tank has plenty of flow and I'm also using a large coralife protein skimmer.

So here's the stock list, there's a LOT of fish but they are all small.

1 yellow tang (on the small side)
1 Yellow Eye Kole Tang (also small)
1 Pink Skunk clown
2 Sergeant Major damsels
1 yellow tail damsel
2 blue green chromis
4 pajama cardinals
1 red filament wrasse
1 red scooter blenny
1 diamond head goby
3 firefish
1 indigo dottyback

Is this completely insane? My water quality seems to be ok, how often and how large of water changes should I do? All of the corals that I have currently are rather healthy but, I was looking to start stocking with a bunch of corals including some SPS.

 

[OneReef]

Seems like alot if you look at the sheer count, but once you look at the size of the fishes, it seems acceptable to me.......

 

[lotsoftats]

Jmo..but I would look into upgrading your skimmer...I have always had good luck with the CSS as i have owned several..but they are not capable of skimming what they say they are IMO...you will need a good skimmer to keep up the water quality especially if you are planning SPS...Again this is JMO.

 

[jacksonpt]

if your water quality is good, then your water quality is good... are you overthinking things a bit? You've got way more biological filtration than the typical 125, which is a big help too.

My only though is with all that LR, do your tangs have enough room to swim? There will be even less open water as SPS grows in.

 

[Nanook]

That is a LOT of rock and sand. Could you post a picture of your tank?

I think your fish list is a bit excessive and as the fish grow, with all of the rock and sand, there will be serious territory problems. The wrasse will most likely jump and the Sergeant Major Damsels will most likely kill the other damsels and chromis. Truthfully, the tangs won't have much swimming space as they grow either with all the rock and sand. The more I think about your first post, the more I want to see your tank

 

[RVANANO]

Whoa!!! That is a ton of rock. I fear that once the corals you add start to grow, it will be overgrown quickly and you will have major flow issues. I would remove a fair amount of rock before adding coral. You will also have major problems with waste buildup in dead spots. Just my $.02. I think your fish list looks ok though.

I read too many threads of heavy rock filled tanks that crashed after a year or two. That is why I chose to do a more minimalist approach using less rock and allowing more space b/t the rock and back glass. Although the tank doesn't look as cool now, I imagine it will look great when the coral fills in. And will allow for a happy and healthy tank for years to come

 

[Jadams]

FTS Please

 

[jacksonpt]

Also keep in mind that with all that rock, it's much harder to avoid dead spots/stagnant water.

 

[strike2867]

Jmo..but I would look into upgrading your skimmer...I have always had good luck with the CSS as i have owned several..but they are not capable of skimming what they say they are IMO...you will need a good skimmer to keep up the water quality especially if you are planning SPS...Again this is JMO.

For me it depended on how the skimmer was set up. When I had it just sitting in the sump it wasn't getting much. The output tripled when all the water in the sump had to go through the skimmer to get to the next chamber.

 

[Uncle Salty 05]

You need to upgrade your skimmer. Unless they have someting new on the market I have never seen a Coralife skimmer capable of handling the bioload you have.
I would also advise you to get rid of the Sergeant Majors, they will get big and mean really fast.
7" sounds like a lot of sand to me, that makes your 120 more like 90 or less.

 

[d3rryc]

FWIW, that kole tang won't stay small for long. I've never had a fish grow faster - went from 2-1/2 inches to 5+ in just six months.

 

[scubasteve06]

I'd get rid of half that live rock and be thinking about taking that sand and making it into a RDSB. Those tangs will need swimming room now and more when they get bigger. I don't think your overstocked, but you certainly don't have room to add. I'd ditch the Seargent Major's and the damsels and two of those cardinals. Have fun catching those damsels too with all that live rock. Maybe as your taking most of it out you can catch them, but as other's have said they will terrorize that tank and all peaceful inhabitants that aren't tangs.

 

[RVANANO]

7" is a lot of sand!!! I only put 40 lbs of sand in my 120.

 

[Donnie2112]

The sand bed is about 6 1/2 to 7 inches, I was looking for a real deep sand bed cuz I figured that the system would hold calcium and PH better with it. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to upload images onto here. I'll certainly do it when I figure it out. As for the volume of rock and the tangs, they seem to have plenty of space. They each have their own areas that they can hide, so as of right now I'm not all that worried about them.

I'm not going to take any fish out because I like all of my fish, but I might consider an upgrade to my skimmer. I might transfer some of the rock to my sump or maybe take some of it back to the fish store. The model I have in there is a coralife 125 and it seems to pull the brown foam out pretty well, seems to really get ticking after I feed and then it tapers off. What brands and models would you guys suggest for this application? Do you guys think that a 10 gallon weekly water change is on target for my load and capacity? Should I consider adding another type of nutrient scrubber to the refugium, such as mangroves?

 

[RVANANO]

When I first started researching how I wanted to setup my 120, I really kept coming back to this tank from TOTM. He chose the two rock islands after having a crash in a previous tank with too much rock. I really liked this setup and it was a major inspiration. The two islands with lots of space on all sides makes a lot of sense for really good flow and growth potential. As well as lots of room for fish to be able to swim at greater distances. Not suggesting you do the same but it's a great example of a nice scape based on a previous negative experience caused by too much rock.


http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2009-03/totm/index.php

 

[Lucidbeam]

I would upgrade your skimmer. If you can keep up with the 10 gallon a week will defent help.

 

[Donnie2112]

So which skimmers would you guys recommend? Maybe a reef octopus 200?

 

[RVANANO]

That's what I have. It does a great job!

 

[Donnie2112]

I suppose that wouldn't be so bad, that'd only cost me a couple hundred bucks and I think I'd feel better with the load I have on my tank. Anybody have a mac, I'm trying to crop down a photo for you guys but I'm not really sure how to reduce the size of the photo on iPhoto

 

[RVANANO]

I have a Mac. I use iphoto to crop. Just drag the square over the area you want and select crop at the bottom of the app.