# How many fish. Loooong post



## Drwoodchopper (Nov 18, 2012)

So I am getting all of the fish stocked that my family wants. The tank is getting pretty well stocked but there are a few more we want and I want to know realistically how heavy I can stock it. It is a 65g with a 20g sump/refugium. I have the sca 303 skimmer which has been working great so far...thanks for the recommendation! Here is my list of fish in the tank now.
Mimic tang
Six line wrasse
Scooter blenny
True percula
Picasso clown
Black and white ocellaris
Royal gramma
Fire goby
Chromis
Damsel
And a bunch of corals.
The damsel and chromis will get donated back to my LFS I needed something for Christmas I wasn't going to kill if the instant ocean bio-spira didn't work. We want to add a carpenters fairy wrasse, green mandarin, maybe a small hippo tang that will eventually go into my larger tank that is in the works. So far everything has gone nearly perfect, just a few hitch hikers I didn't want. I have been simply amazed at how well everything has done actually My parameters have stayed perfect after about the first 10-12 days. Normally I would have gone much slower but my wife and kids have been so excited and helpful I basically just wanted to feed the fire so they wouldn't loose interest so I went ahead and took some pretty big risks. Anyway I want to know what a general rule for how many fish or how many inches of fish I can squeeze in there. I am a little concerned about the scooter blenny, the mandarin and two wrasses all eating pods and not being able to keep them fed. The scooter is chowing brine shrimp as well as the six line so that will help. 
I am thinking of doing a write up on exactly how I set this tank up if it doesnt crash cuz i went way to fast haha. So far I am sold on bio-spira! I went much faster than I planned and have had much better results than I Could have dreamed! I have approximately 19" of fish now but they are still growing. That might already be pushing it? Plus a descent clean up crew maybe 20 hermit crabs, 10 snails, emerald crab, sand sifting star, skunk cleaner shrimp, fighting konch.
Thanks so much for your help and advice. The equipment I bought that was recommended has been great!


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## ionix (Oct 11, 2012)

So I am getting all of the fish stocked that my family wants. The tank is getting pretty well stocked but there are a few more we want and I want to know realistically how heavy I can stock it.

I would recommend that you keep at least several gallons to each inch of fish, before they are even grown (unless you are indeed upgrading). This is for the fish, coral, and etc. to avoid a unstable perimeters (and to make sure their lives are wonderful and they are happy).

It is a 65g with a 20g sump/refugium. I have the sca 303 skimmer which has been working great so far...thanks for the recommendation! Here is my list of fish in the tank now.
Mimic tang
Six line wrasse
Scooter blenny
True percula
Picasso clown
Black and white ocellaris
Royal gramma
Fire goby
Chromis
Damsel
And a bunch of corals.
The damsel and chromis will get donated back to my LFS I needed something for Christmas I wasn't going to kill if the instant ocean bio-spira didn't work. We want to add a carpenters fairy wrasse, green mandarin, maybe a small hippo tang that will eventually go into my larger tank that is in the works.

I assume you are referring to the 65g. I am not an expert but a novice still though I'd want to make sure you can still see excess of copepods around on the tanks glass and film if there is one.

So far everything has gone nearly perfect, just a few hitch hikers I didn't want. I have been simply amazed at how well everything has done actually My parameters have stayed perfect after about the first 10-12 days. 

How many days/weeks est.? That's sounds like a great start 

Normally I would have gone much slower but my wife and kids have been so excited and helpful I basically just wanted to feed the fire so they wouldn't loose interest so I went ahead and took some pretty big risks. Anyway I want to know what a general rule for how many fish or how many inches of fish I can squeeze in there. I am a little concerned about the scooter blenny, the mandarin and two wrasses all eating pods and not being able to keep them fed. The scooter is chowing brine shrimp as well as the six line so that will help. 

Understandable, but what might've gotten their attention is more involvement or anticipation (a little calender with arrival dates of the fish). You may try letting them help set the tanks aesthetics, let them choose some fish/coral that they may feed, relaying some "fun" duties that aren't really work and completely voluntary (scheduled), help them understand what you're trying to recreate.. It isn't an aquarium but quite literally; a tiny, secluded world. Though sounds like the fire is definitely going!  Soon enough, they'll want their own little nanos, with tiny little aqualifters doing circulation to the maintank. *r2*r2

Onto the copepods.. I suggest seriously setting up a little sandy area, some nice porous live rock (dead if its really good in porous terms) stacked up (maybe rubble), in the sump. It's what I use, and my mandarin dragonet is eating away without even denting the population. You can generally tell your population by counting the amount in a square inch on the glass (that is an odd place to be for them, so if they are there, you can safely assume they are inhabiting the substrate, live rock, and water column/water skin if they are young).

I am thinking of doing a write up on exactly how I set this tank up if it doesnt crash cuz i went way to fast haha. So far I am sold on bio-spira! I went much faster than I planned and have had much better results than I Could have dreamed! I have approximately 19" of fish now but they are still growing. That might already be pushing it? Plus a descent clean up crew maybe 20 hermit crabs, 10 snails, emerald crab, sand sifting star, skunk cleaner shrimp, fighting konch.
Thanks so much for your help and advice. The equipment I bought that was recommended has been great!

Glad the forums were able to help. Everything seems to be going well, I hope it continues, and I also want to see that write-up. Honestly great job by the sounds of it, but please post a picture any way.


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

No Tangs. Knock out the Chromis and the Damsel, and you have a Stocking List. Of which you are still able to add something of size, but no Tangs.


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## Drwoodchopper (Nov 18, 2012)

I assume you are referring to the 65g. I am not an expert but a novice still though I'd want to make sure you can still see excess of copepods around on the tanks glass and film if there is one.[/COLOR="Red"]
There are hundreds of Copepods on the glass and if you look close you can sometimes find one "swimming" the chromis and wrasse and blenny you can watch feed on them. I have a nice little refugium area set up in my sump where I stocked them and feed phyto to everyday which in turn also feeds my corals.

Understandable, but what might've gotten their attention is more involvement or anticipation (a little calender with arrival dates of the fish). You may try letting them help set the tanks aesthetics, let them choose some fish/coral that they may feed, relaying some "fun" duties that aren't really work and completely voluntary (scheduled), help them understand what you're trying to recreate.. It isn't an aquarium but quite literally; a tiny, secluded world. Though sounds like the fire is definitely going!  Soon enough, they'll want their own little nanos, with tiny little aqualifters doing circulation to the maintank.  *r2*r2
It is a total family deal. Each saved money for 1 fish. One was the True percula and 1 was the scooter blenny. 
Onto the copepods.. I suggest seriously setting up a little sandy area, some nice porous live rock (dead if its really good in porous terms) stacked up (maybe rubble), in the sump. It's what I use, and my mandarin dragonet is eating away without even denting the population. You can generally tell your population by counting the amount in a square inch on the glass (that is an odd place to be for them, so if they are there, you can safely assume they are inhabiting the substrate, live rock, and water column/water skin if they are young).[/QUOTE]

I have a few pictures in photobucket but I need to take some more.


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## Drwoodchopper (Nov 18, 2012)

Reefing Madness said:


> No Tangs. Knock out the Chromis and the Damsel, and you have a Stocking List. Of which you are still able to add something of size, but no Tangs.


Are you saying no tangs just because of the size of my tank?


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Drwoodchopper said:


> Are you saying no tangs just because of the size of my tank?


Yes. Thats what I'm saying.


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## ionix (Oct 11, 2012)

There are hundreds of Copepods on the glass and if you look close you can sometimes find one "swimming" the chromis and wrasse and blenny you can watch feed on them. I have a nice little refugium area set up in my sump where I stocked them and feed phyto to everyday which in turn also feeds my corals.

That is great. That will be very successful. Keep it up!

It is a total family deal. Each saved money for 1 fish. One was the True percula and 1 was the scooter blenny. 

I have a few pictures in photobucket but I need to take some more.

Awesome. And great job. Some people just don't have these ideas come to them, and I really like how you worked their own money/values in. I'll have to remember that example lol.

But honestly all together, it might've been a rush job, but it couldn't have went better. *w3*w3*w3

p.s. yeay, post them as soon as you can. don't forget, you can upload them here, on the top panel. It allows unlimited uploads I believe, and there is a video tut to show you how to use the pictures in the forums.. just fyi, its a good resource to throw high-def pics on. I'm really interested to see what was made.


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## Drwoodchopper (Nov 18, 2012)

Here are a few pictures and I uploaded a few more to my gallery. I got really lucky with many of my corals. We were about to head out the door to buy a couple at the LFS, I got on our local classified website and found someone selling a bunch so I came home with some bigger very nice pieces that were priced cheap! I tried really hard to get as good of stuff as I could afford and do as much work as I could on my own. I built the stand, drilled and plumbed the tank, installed my own RODI filter system, built my sump, ect. This forrum was a great source of info for all of that!! *w3


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

LOOKING GREAT!!!
If you plan on putting more coral and fish in there, I'd definately upgrade my sump and skimmer now, to avoid the bio rush when it comes.


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## Drwoodchopper (Nov 18, 2012)

Reefing Madness said:


> LOOKING GREAT!!!
> If you plan on putting more coral and fish in there, I'd definately upgrade my sump and skimmer now, to avoid the bio rush when it comes.


Thanks. I would have liked a bigger sump but that was all I could really fit. Hopefully that skimmer works...that was one of the ones you recommended..haha it's 150 gallon rated. I don't think I will have much more of a bioload introduced. Number wise I think I will only go one more fish than I have now if at all. Most likely we will ditch the damsel and chromis and get the fairy wrasse and maybe a the green mandarine or something else small...there are so many I like.


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)




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## ionix (Oct 11, 2012)

I swear even your clownfish is trying to put a smile on. 

Great pictures, everything looks really perfectly placed. 5/5!

DIY in my opinion, is the best way to go if you can do it. A lot of products are about compacting while DIY lets you have room to really optimize.


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## Drwoodchopper (Nov 18, 2012)

So far everything has worked great. This is my first tank in about 23 years. In all honesty I don't know what I would have done different. The only things I can think of is built a deeper stand which I really didn't have room for so I could have gone to a 30g sump and maybe twin 750gph power heads instead of one 550 and one 750. But I have no idea if that would have made any difference.


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