is my tank over populated?

[neon_hybrid]

I have a 55 gal with 60 lbs of liverock, 60 lbs of argonite substrate a 10 gallon wet/dry, and I will be adding a 10 gal fuge this weekend with another 10 lbs of live rock, and a 4 inch argonite bed

Fish
3 inch sand sifting goby
1 inch clown goby
2.5 inch mandalin goby
3 inch yellow tang
3 inch lamars angel
2x 1.5 inch yellow tail damsels.

I also run a remora protein skimmer

I also have a sand sifting star, 10 hermit crabs 2 cleaner shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, 1 other small crab, and a bunch of snails.

The new additions are the star, sand sifting goby, and mandrin goby....

I do not run any additional filtration. I have not noticed an spike in amonia, or nitrite. I have been battling nitrate but was doing that before i added the few fish. My nitrates are down to 20 ppm but were at 160 about 2 months ago.

The new fish have only been in there for about 3 days. I am below the 1 inch of fish for 3 gallons... I think I am ok, but just wanted to see what other people think. I am thinking of getting rid of my angel if I start noticing my amonia increase....

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

right now you are fine but when all those fish reach full size you will be overstocked

 

[neon_hybrid]

right now you are fine but when all those fish reach full size you will be overstocked

Thats why i am thinking of getting rid of the angel because it is going to get too big. I am hoping to start a second tank, so I might just transfer him to the new tank which should be a 180 gallon. I want to put larger fish in the larger tank.... I am thinking that I will be ok by removing the angel.... The tang should get bigger, and the manadrin will get a little bigger, but the rest should stay about the same from my understanding. Is this correct?

 

[lando]

the best measure for determining if you are over-stocked is to take a look at your water parameters. If all water parameters are good then your tank is able to handle the bioload. If you are constantly fighting to keep parameters in line (such as NO3) then you may be over-stocked. Keep in mind that there is big different between "over-stocking" and matching the appropriate fish with the appropriate size tank.

 

[neon_hybrid]

the best measure for determining if you are over-stocked is to take a look at your water parameters. If all water parameters are good then your tank is able to handle the bioload. If you are constantly fighting to keep parameters in line (such as NO3) then you may be over-stocked. Keep in mind that there is big different between "over-stocking" and matching the appropriate fish with the appropriate size tank.

I completely understand the difference. My tang is pretty much in the smallest tank possible, and because my tank is a 4 foot long tank, he is ok, but I want to get a bigger tank to put the larger breed fish. I would rather have more than enough room for my fish than just barely enough. Only my tang, and angel are have the possibility of outgrowing my tank in my opinion All other fish have a 30gal or smaller recommended tank size. As I stated before my nitrates were through the roof but that was before I added the fish. The nitrates were actually being caused by the substrate type, and my bio balls. I have changed the substrate and am slowly removing my bio balls. As I remove the bio balls, the nitrates have been dropping. Last week they were at 30 ppm, and now they are at 20. I did a 10 gal water change on tuesday... Seems each time I do a water change, the nitrates go down a little which was not the case before I change the substrate and started removing the bio balls. I am expecting that the nitrates will be down to less than 10ppm within the next month.

 

[lando]

Sounds like you are on the right track!