Tank Capacity

[popo559]

I currently have a 100 gallon tank. I have used the calculators and it stated that I may have 21" of fish. In a 6' tank is that right. What about the corals? Do they count towards the inches as well? Just curious. Currently I have the following:

(2) perc clowns
(1) Porcupine puffer
(1) yellow tang
(2) anenome's- condi/pink hiation
(6) damsels - they are fixing to go away thou.

 

[StripesTheEel]

Corals do not count towards the inches or bioload.

If you want corals and inverts the puffer will need to go. He will take out all your inverts and is a very heavy waste producer.

Dont forget that 21" is adult size, so when u buy them account for them growing etc.

HTH

 

[Rockcrawler]

OK I'll ask - this is a new why of measuring load on the tank, inches and feet

How does this work ? What are the guidelines ????

Thanking you now for your help in the future

 

[popo559]

Most easily explained your tank is a small self contained ecosystem. By adding to many fish into your system the balance needed to successfully maintain your water parameters would be off.

The inches that we are refering to is the amount of adult fish in inches minus the tails that you should be able to keep without throwing your system off. Obviously you would not want to add all of these fish at one time or it may throw your tank into another cycle. You can go to the calculators on this site and plug in your gallons or tank dimensions to see what is suggested for your tank.

 

[DragonForce]

(2) perc clowns
(1) Porcupine puffer
(1) yellow tang
(2) anenome's- condi/pink hiation
(6) damsels - they are fixing to go away thou.


You could take the puffer back for store credit and trade it for one of the dwarf angels.

The 6 damsels could be replaced with maybe a school of 5or7 blue/green chromis.

That would be a really pretty tank!

The inches thing is subjective to a few different elements.

Some fish really don't require alot of moving room.

And some fish don't produce much waste. Chromis, for example, get fairly large fully grown but even fully grown their waste is minimal.

The reasons for the inches to gallon rule is to provide the fish with enough room to be happy and to account for the waste they add to the bio load.

Obviously, a sump, skimmer, etc. also play important roles.