Stocking

[Cluckr7]

Do two large feather dusters add a lot of bio mass? The actual worms are about 5 inches long, about half an inch in diameter. That seems like a lot of biomass. They are in a 30 gallon aquarium with two clown fish and a coral beauty. I noticed my ammonia creeping up since I got them, and I think I will get rid of them.

Also, I am having trouble getting rid of nitrates. I did a 35% water change only about a week and a half ago to take the nitrates down to about 15 ppm, but already they are back up to 40ppm. I have a skimmer that is working well, with about 1 pound per gallon of live rock. I just added a DSB, but I'm guessing it'll take a while for that to start helping. The tank also has an eheim canister filter.

 

[jamal-188]

I can't imagine feather dusters would add much to your bio mass. I think the only thing people really calculate into bio mass is inches of fish minus the tail for a general rule you should be able to keep 6 inches of adult fish.

 

[steve-s]

How much do you feed and what is the daily staple? This can often be a concern as well as the age of the tank.

With the Eheim, you will also need to be mindful about meaty foods as these types of filters are great traps for more solid food and can easily lead to poor water quality if not cleaned and maintained regularly...

The dusters will add nothing to the bio load as jamal-188 said and should be no concern.

Cheers
Steve