sps corals and fish ratio

[ptr13]

In your experiences guys,what are the rules in keeping sps well? what is the ratio of fishes to gallons in a reef tank and does it affect in keeping sps. I know lps,softies,they dont bother too much but I feel like sps is a little more picky.

 

[mrmikeasaurus]

i had my 450 that was sps dominated connected to a 220 sump and 8' frag tank.. in the whole system i had 41 fish...16 tangs, 4 wrasses, 4 mandarins, 8 clowns, 8 anthias and an angler ... did a 40 gal water change once a month and never had any problems

 

[mark54321]

I have 14 fish in my 120gal. SPS tank. Oversized skimmer ,carbon and bio pellets keep everything happy.

 

[whorulz1147]

Mark, do you have a list? Are they all small fish, or do you have some big ones in there? Just curious....

 

[mark54321]

I have 3 tangs ( pssst, tang police somewhere here) : tomini tang,purple tang,regal tang,two clowns, two basslets:royal gramma and blacktop basslet,yelowtail damsel,starcki damsel,randall's goby,vanderbilt's chromis,onother chromis(don't know the name,black with yellow fins)and larytail anthia male.

 

[mark54321]

here is picture of my tank ,you can see the three tangs and some other fish,corals are growing fast and colors are good.

 

[gofor100]

To answer you question, there really isn't a steadfast rule on "ratio" of fishes to gallons... If you have a really good skimmer, you can technically keep as many fish as you want in a tank as long as your skimmer can get rid of all of the waste efficiently.

HOWEVER, it's probably more humane to keep a lower number of fish (also depending on size of the fish) so that each can establish their own territory in your tank and not constantly get into territorial battles as they mature and grow.

Hope this helps,

Chad

 

[PasserAngelfish]

mine is 4 fish & 3 shrimps in 200L tank as I don't want to do water change. don't want to work for fish using too much time and effort.

 

[Alex T.]

I have the following in my 72 x 18 x 27 150 SPS reef:

1 Yellow Tang
1 Kole Tang
1 Vlamingi Tang (Small Juvenile)
1 Emperor Angel (Juvenile but changing to adult colors)
1 Skunk Clown
2 Lyretail Anthias
4 Blue Chromis
1 Blue Devil Damsel
1 Coral Beauty
1 Sixline Wrasse

I dose vodka/MB7 and have an ETSS 900xr skimmer that is rated to skim a 300 gallon SPS tank clean. I have to feed a good amount per day to keep the corals from going pale. I guess you could say I have all my tank upgraded equipment without the tank. My calcium Reactor is an MRC CR6 Dual which is rated to keep a heavily stocked 700 gallon SPS tank's demands in check. I'm currently in the process of getting bids from a few custom tank builders for an 8x48x24 with one of the four food sides as a coast to coast overflow. I'm building the room to house the tank in my "mancave" garage as we speak.

 

[n0rk]

Number of fish isn't really gonna mean much without knowing a lot of other factors their size/wastes, the amount your feed them, the types of foods they're fed, your filtration... you could have one fish tip you over the edge in the case of a big carnivore with a moderately sized skimmer, and the same system could probably take 50 smaller omnivores with a big skimmer and good husbandry.

Stock to your system, not to a rulebook