[Aerinah]

I was wondering how many fish is too many for a 125g reef system. I'm fairly new to this (just now 3 years with a saltwater reef) as this is my first and only saltwater system I've had I don't want to do anything wrong. Should I get rid of some or can I still safely add more?

Current population:

2 Heniochous (Bannerfish?) (Poor man's Idol)
2 Bartlett's Anthias
2 Mandarin Gobies (1m/1f) and currently spawning in my tank
4 Green Chromis
1 Bluelined Cleaner Wrasse
1 Leopard Wrasse
1 Choris Wrasse (Got this w/o knowing anything about it - will be gettin rid of it soon)
1 Yellow Tang
1 Regal Tang (Dori)
2 Oscelarus Clowns
2 Purple Fire Fish(Gobies)

I believe that is it other than corals/anemone's

Any help would be greatly appreciated TY!

[wesley6610]

Without being too technical, what is the health of your fish? Can you easily feed them all without fouling up your water column? What is your skimmers skimmate like weekly? Are there any territory issues? Does you feeding effect you current corals? How big are your fish? under 3 - 4" each or larger? Answering some of these questions can/will give us a head start on helping you, however I do not believe that there is a simple yes or no to what your initial question is. If you have a true reef, I would say yes it may be too many if they all survive and become fully grown. If it is light on corals, then maybe not as big of a deal now, but still once fully grown it will be too many.

[jgo1973]

How long have you had your Heniochous? I can not seem to keep a pair for very long! Where did you buy them?

[robe25m]

My fish, 120 gallon reef with alot of coral etc
1 Vlamingi tang
1 Yellow tang
1 Scopas Tang
1 cleaner wrasse
2 six line wrass
1 phseudo (spelling)
7 white/black striped damsels
1 blue devil damsel
1 yellow headed sandsifting goby (forget name)
2 tomato clown
4 medium sized chromis

No problems at all for me, when my vlamingi tang gets over 12in I will trade him in..

I think your fine

[Tonz of fun]

I have reason to believe your bioload is maxxxxed out. No more fish IMO.

[wesley6610]

Originally Posted by Tonz of fun

I have reason to believe your bioload is maxxxxed out. No more fish IMO.

I agree, that is way too many living mobile ammonia reactors in a tank that is also housing corals. You may not notice the effects now, but keep a sharp eye on your levels for constant water changes or an upgrade to filtration and I hope you don't have a Wet/Dry on top of the massive bioload.

[wesley6610]

Originally Posted by robe25m

My fish, 120 gallon reef with alot of coral etc
1 Vlamingi tang
1 Yellow tang
1 Scopas Tang
1 cleaner wrasse
2 six line wrass
1 phseudo (spelling)
7 white/black striped damsels
1 blue devil damsel
1 yellow headed sandsifting goby (forget name)
2 tomato clown
4 medium sized chromis

No problems at all for me, when my vlamingi tang gets over 12in I will trade him in..

I think your fine

How long has your tank been setup and what are your water parameters so that we can get a better idea how a large bioload like yours with corals has no ill effects on your water column?

[rlcline76]

Hard to answer this question.
What kind of equipment do you have?
Seeing any aggression issues?
What have your water parameters been like?
Can you include a pic? I'd like to see this tank!

[wesley6610]

I would be interested in a photo too, sometimes that tells more than the longest post does.

[robe25m]

My tank is 6 months old but 35% percent of it was migrated from a 30g, my damsels are rolling up on 2 years old...

I argue greatly with this bio load theory in this case, for one thing damsels, chromis and a cleaner wrasse like most small fish hardly make a dent on bio load..

If I change my filters do proper Bi-weekly water changes etc this will never be a issue, I believe people run into problems when they dose incorrectly.

For a new tank yes bio load can be a major issue.

My Vlamingi tang produces more waste then all my other fish combined and the best part he eats his own POO.......

I will share my tank when I can..

[Aerinah]

Originally Posted by wesley6610

Without being too technical, what is the health of your fish? Can you easily feed them all without fouling up your water column? What is your skimmers skimmate like weekly? Are there any territory issues? Does you feeding effect you current corals? How big are your fish? under 3 - 4" each or larger? Answering some of these questions can/will give us a head start on helping you, however I do not believe that there is a simple yes or no to what your initial question is. If you have a true reef, I would say yes it may be too many if they all survive and become fully grown. If it is light on corals, then maybe not as big of a deal now, but still once fully grown it will be too many.

Fish seem to be generally healthy and happy. I do see the occasional rub here and there but nothing serious. I do get a white spot every so often but it is usually confined to one fish and then I don't see it again for weeks at a time.

What do you mean easily feeed them w/o fouling my water column? I thought that food always floated around in it? I feed frozen brine/misis/greens once a day a small pinch of floating pellets towards afternoon and a small pinch of flakes at night every other day.

I don't get very much out of my skimmer at all weekly. What I do get has very little color to it.

I don't know about territory issues. I do see that my Grammas has "his" or "her" cave that she sticks around but other than that I have not seen anything. The clowns have their bubble-tip and seem to be happy with it.

I'm not sure how feeding would affect my corals, so my answer is going to be no I do not believe so? I feed, whatever eats things, eats, other things stay open <shrug>

Most all of my fish are small. My "dori" is 2 maybe 3" My 2 Heniochus are pretty good size though 3-4" top to bottom? The yellow tang is probably the largest in there (May try to trade this one in for a smaller one if it becomes a problem). Maybe 4" or so long?

I'm not sure I have a true "reef" by definition, I have 3 anemone's some zooanthids (so I've been told), some pulsing Xenia, button polyps, star polyps, a flower pot? (my guess) gorganthid (sp?) , and 3 mystery corals.

Originally Posted by wesley6610

I agree, that is way too many living mobile ammonia reactors in a tank that is also housing corals. You may not notice the effects now, but keep a sharp eye on your levels for constant water changes or an upgrade to filtration and I hope you don't have a Wet/Dry on top of the massive bioload.

What should I upgrade my filtration to? Is it something that I can add to what I am currently running or something I would switch out entirely. And no I am sorry I do not have a wet/dry on my tank. Should I?

[wesley6610]

Originally Posted by Aerinah

Fish seem to be generally healthy and happy. I do see the occasional rub here and there but nothing serious. I do get a white spot every so often but it is usually confined to one fish and then I don't see it again for weeks at a time.

Answer: If you have some white, I would start up a QT and prepare for ich if it persist from fish to fish. But if you think it could be for other reason, then keep a good eye on the fish in question, could be from the flashing you spoke of.

What do you mean easily feeed them w/o fouling my water column? I thought that food always floated around in it? I feed frozen brine/misis/greens once a day a small pinch of floating pellets towards afternoon and a small pinch of flakes at night every other day.

Answer: With so many fish, are you putting food in and its a free for all or do you try to feed everyone so that no one suffers? I know with me, my Damsels are faster than my clowns so I have to pre-occupy him while my slower fish get fed too. I can only imagine what a tank of your size might be like with all those fish.

I don't get very much out of my skimmer at all weekly. What I do get has very little color to it.

Answer: If your not getting that much skimmate weekly, you may need to re-adjust or clean out your skimmer. With all those fish, you should be getting more than you are in theory.

I don't know about territory issues. I do see that my Grammas has "his" or "her" cave that she sticks around but other than that I have not seen anything. The clowns have their bubble-tip and seem to be happy with it.

Answer: Well that's good if no one fights or gets overly aggressive.

I'm not sure how feeding would affect my corals, so my answer is going to be no I do not believe so? I feed, whatever eats things, eats, other things stay open <shrug>

Answer: Its not the feeding that could hurt your corals, but the metabolites from feeding so many fish and not getting good skimming that may, just keep an eye out.

Most all of my fish are small. My "dori" is 2 maybe 3" My 2 Heniochus are pretty good size though 3-4" top to bottom? The yellow tang is probably the largest in there (May try to trade this one in for a smaller one if it becomes a problem). Maybe 4" or so long?

Answer: Well they are always great when small, but just keep an eye on how fast they develop and if you need to trade of sell some off, pick favorites now, lol

I'm not sure I have a true "reef" by definition, I have 3 anemone's some zooanthids (so I've been told), some pulsing Xenia, button polyps, star polyps, a flower pot? (my guess) gorganthid (sp?) , and 3 mystery corals.

Answer: You have a big mini reef and if you get more corals and less fish over time, you will have a beauty I'm sure. I've always associated home reefs with more emphasis on corals and less on fish.




What should I upgrade my filtration to? Is it something that I can add to what I am currently running or something I would switch out entirely. And no I am sorry I do not have a wet/dry on my tank. Should I?

Answer: I would upgrade to a refugium if it will be for corals and a bigger sump if it will be geared towards your fish. If your skimmer doesn't start skimming better, I would get a good upgrade and add some live rock to the sump/fuge. NO, you don't need or want a Wet/Dry, I was just inquiring if you had one currently. Too many nitrates get leached into the water with them.

[Aerinah]

I would love to upload a pic of my tank for everyone but I'm new to the forum... where do I post it?

(Can't make a larger sump) working with limited space under my stand, I cannot get anything larger than what I have now on my system. I would have to add another unit inline entirely. Maybe my sump first into a refug? What do you think about something like that? I'll try to take pics of underneath and my sump as well so you know what we're working with other than a limited budget lol.

I do have a QT setup and running already. I try to keep one up all the time. Currently not heated though, just running the filter only. If I do have to QT some of my larger fish, I only have a 10g QT will they be ok in something that small for the short stay in it?

When I feed, I thaw my food in a shot-glass, add my garlic and vitamins and then add slowly to my tank. The quicker ones always stay by the glass allowing the slower ones to get the stuff that floats away from the main group.

I do bi-monthly 50g water changes to help keep everyone happy and my parameters low. I'm due this weekend for another change.

I'm already planning on the Choris Wrasse/Red Choris to go back after it goes through it's juvenile phase and becomes an adult. I'm thinking the Yellow tang should go and be traded for something way smaller. I was also thinking about letting the 2 purple fire-fish go since we hardly ever see them. (didn't to begin with really either)

Thanks for the advice

[wesley6610]

Good about the QT tank.

I would like to see the pics and honestly you can post them when you make a reply, if you scroll down you will see the button for attachments.

Instead of trading fish, IMO, I would give away fish until I had just the ones I wanted and I know that once they are full grown they will still have ample space. I wonder how much space does a tang really need to be happy?

Also, it will be more tedious, but I would suggest that instead of 50g twice a month, I would do 20 gallons each week. There is a link for the Instant Nitrate Reduction Method or you can google it. In any case, frequent smaller changes are better than infrequent big ones, but if you have few corals, you might be cool with what your doing. Its a judgement call, but I alway error on the side of caution.

I understand about the space issue too, but just do the best with what you have and if you drain your tank for a day and swap out what you have, it wouldn't be that bad since you don't have a whole reef to disassemble just yet.

[Aerinah]

ok, can't seem to get my pics up in here but I have some uploaded in photo bucket. I'll try to link it below.

Aerirnah - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

[stephaniesquires]

Nice pictures!! Nice tank!!!

[wesley6610]

I can't tell for sure, but do you have a coral reef background or is that more corals just out of focus?