Your Fish Stocking Levels

rlpardue

Member
Hi everyone,

I'm in the final stages of a 5x2x2 SPS-dom build and am putting together a fish list. I recently saw an AMAZING SPS tank (8 Radions!!!) that had only 2 chromis and one candy hogfish. It got me thinking about what I want my stocking level to be when it comes to fish.

I started toying with the idea of having a bunch of nano-gobies (non-SPS nipping ones) like green-banded gobies, etc. in the tank with 1 tank for eating algae and a couple Halichoeres wrasses, a couple Lubbock's wrasses and a pair of Banggais.

Do any of y'all keep a bunch of small fish in your SPS tanks? What are some of the really low-bioload fish lists you guys have?
 
Just because you have an SPS dominated tank doesn't mean you can't have a lot of fish, or big fish. Look at the TOFMs from months past, particularly John Coppolino's tank from January 2011. This is what I am striving for.
 
Thanks Stan. Yes Jschultz, I've seen some great SPS-dom tanks with tons of fish. I just read through that TOTM article you recommended (I think for the 3rd time lol) and was once again amazed at his bio-load. While his tank does demonstrate that it is possible to have a high bio-load and still maintain thriving SPS, he did say the following:

"Without a doubt one of the most difficult things to do in this hobby is keep a colorful and growing SPS system successfully long-term with a high bioload"

While I love big fish (and the trigger in your avatar looks sweet btw), I am desigining this tank to be my "post-children" tank and want to keep it as simple as possible. When I've had tanks with high bioloads (like with seahorse setups) I've just noticed there is a smaller margin for error. I figure keeping some small fish would make it easier to keep everything stable and give me extra time to notice any upticks in PO4 or NO3.

I seem to remember one guy whose tank was in Asia somewhere; he had about a 150 cube or something similar with lots of small fish. I can't find his thread now and was wondering if this is a common practice at all.
 
That is all true and I understand your point about "post-children". One of my friends just got out of the hobby to spend more time with his kids. It seems to be pretty common having a lot of small fish in your tank. Search "Mike Paletta" on you tube and check out his 300 gallon. He has a lot of small fish. Seems like a lot of chromis, anthias, wrasses, cardinals. Watch the "how to set up a saltwater aquarium - part 2" where he goes over his maintenance schedule.
 
I'm in the small fish lower bioload camp. I have a 4x2x2 and in it I have two oscellaris, a royal gramma, a flameback pygmy angel, a rainford goby and a yellow clown goby. I like small fish for more than keeping my bioload down. I like the effect - larger fish make the tank seem smaller to me. Different sense of scale with the small fish.
 
I'm in the small fish lower bioload camp. I have a 4x2x2 and in it I have two oscellaris, a royal gramma, a flameback pygmy angel, a rainford goby and a yellow clown goby. I like small fish for more than keeping my bioload down. I like the effect - larger fish make the tank seem smaller to me. Different sense of scale with the small fish.

My philosophy as well.
 
I think that the biggest issue with a low bioload sps tank is that you need to do alot more supplemental feeding for the sps, something like Rotifers at night. I lost alot of color when I went to a larger system with the same bioload. IMHO diet is a larger factor in coloration than the lighting itself. They have to have nutrients to grow and color and SPS feed off small particles such as fish poop and rotis.
 
In my 40... diamond goby, kole tang, yellow coris wrasse, 4 blue chromis, 2 percs, 3 lyretail anthias. Tanks specs are in my sig. However, the ro 200 is now being used on my prop tank. Im using a little cheapo ebay skimmer (sca-302) on the 40.
 
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