Stocking My Aquarium

[ReNNie]

I have a 55 Gallon tank with Live Rock. I also have 2 Percula Clowns,a Peppermint shrimp and 50 Nassarius snails. In the future I was thinking of getting a Yellow tang and a copperbanded butterflyfish. I am going to wait until I can keep my tank really stable for 3 or 4 months first though. My questions is will the bio-load or carry capacity be to much for my current size tank?? Any Post would be a help as I am fairly new to the hobby (2 years). I would also like to say hello to everyone in the forum and thank you in advance for you posts. Thanks alot Matt

 

[tecwzrd]

Welcome to AA

I’d go with the Copperbanded Butterflyfish or the Yellow Tang but not both in a 55 gal tank. After either one you will be maxed out as far as fish go. Personally I think you would do better with the tang as they are hardy & enjoyable fish.

What are you using for biological filtration now? How much lr do you currently have?

 

[ReNNie]

I have 30 LBS of live rock (getting more, little at a time) and a fluval 304 with biomass and carbon once and a while. I also have a about 60 lbs of crushed coral. Really that sucks, only 3 fish haha awwww thanks alot by the way

 

[ReNNie]

ohh and thanks for the welcome. I also have another question. I do about 5 % water changes every week (is this good??) and all my levels are good. But for some reason it is hard to get a good reading for my ph with my current test kit ( hagen ) I find them really hard to get a good reading by comparing the paper to the test tube. Is there another test brand that I could try that you know of?? Thanks for all your help

 

[Hara]

The CBB can be very difficult to get to eat...that being said, if you can get them to eat frozen brine/mysis, they are an enjoyable fish to own. I was fortunate in my fish, it eats like a pig. The tang is a much less risky choice.

As far as it "sucks" to have 3 fish in a 55. I have a 55 with a lunarre wrasse and niger trigger as its only residents. Another 55 with only a pair of maroon clowns.
I believe it is much better for the fish to not stuff so many in the same box.

 

[tecwzrd]

I like AP & Red Sea test personally but most say the salifert tests are the most reliable/easy to read. I only have the no3 & po4 tests from salifert and they are accurate IMO.

You could keep more fish but I wouldn’t recommend it. SW is harder to oxygenate than FW which is one of many reasons. I had 8 large cichlids in my brackish setup without any problems You can get lots of shrimp/small hermits/corals though That’s the main reason why I have my eye on the 120 gal reef ready system at my lfs. Now I only have to convince my wife that $2500 is something we “need to spend” in order to enjoy it.

As long as you keep your no3 below 10 ppm a 5% pwc weekly should be ok. I do 5 gal a week myself on the 55 gal.

 

[ReNNie]

Thanks for all the input will check out the test kits. I have that same battle with my wife haha, it always works out for the good though. Hara, I agree with you on not overstocking the tanks. And thanks for the info on the CBB I will think about it for awhile before I make up my mind.