Is this true, I do not belive it.

[solojrbb]

The lady at the pet store told me today that the limit of fish in a reef tank should not go over 1/2 inch per fish per gallon. Has anyone else ever heard of that> It didnt make sense to me. I only have three in my reef Damsil, clown grouper and a regular clown, and the garbage men shrimp hermits and crabs. Thats it, I may get two more small fish but thats it. How many fish can you put in a reef tank that is full of coral of all sorts and has the right amount of live rock for the size of the tank well actually it has more than enough little over 100lbs The equation makes a little more sense with the amount of live rock taking up water volume because that subtracts from the amount of water in the tank, but still dont know. Somebody tell me, I do want more fish in my reef tank but I want to be safe with little or no strain on the tank so how many? (Im guessing 5 small to medium reef safe fish.

 

[Navarre]

with todays technologies, skimmers and filtrations etc. the inch per fish rule is a little dated. Its still used as a guideline but purely as a guide.
I would say that if you add a fish at a time then wait a month for the tank to adjust to the new bioload. Monitor the watrer readings in this time.

I had 14 fish in a 180 ltr setup for some considerable time whilst i was waiting for the larger tank to start up. There was no appreciable deterioration in water quality except for nitraes rose from 5ppm to 12ppm

 

[Ed4567]

As has been already said the bioload that your tank can sustain depends on so many factors that rules of thumb are obsolete. By the way you might want to read up on the grouper, although I dont know the specific species you have so I could be wrong- http/www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg....=32&TopCatId=32

Ed

 

[ostrow]

How many gallons is your tank? Generally, the rule is one inch per 5 gallons I believe. Maybe one to three but no more.

 

[Great Lakes]

See my newly pinned article on saltwater stocking..

GL

 

[ostrow]

GL you don't give general guidelines. I would amend my earlier post by saying depends on how stocked the tank is otherwise. I am way overstocked at 1 to 3 as I have a goodly stock of corals, softies and sps, in quite a variety too.

BUT I have a heavier than normal cleanup crew, a phosban reactor, and I skim more heavily than would otherwise be necessary.

I think flow is important too in this.

But I am overstocked....

 

[RamJet]

I used to have a clown grouper, wow what a neat fish. However, they do get if I recall correctly up to two and half feet long, and will eat others.
I think as far as how many fish you want in your reef, that will depend on the above mentioned and how well you want to see your reef grow. I used to feel the same way you did, the more I got into coral the less I want the fish in the reef. I got really tired of them picking at every thing, knocking things of the rock and causing corals to close up. Not to mention the waiste they produce. I now have only a cleaner goby, and a 6 line wrasse in my 75 gallon reef. Corals are growing faster than ever, and stay open for me to enjoy.