How many more fish?

[Jacob Abshire]

Hi, I have a 46 bow front tank with 50lbs live rock 2 power heads and a back filter. It has been set up for almost 2 years. The live stock includes:

2 False percs
2 pink skunk clowns
1 sixline wrass
1 cleaner shrimp
6 peppermint shrimp
6 hermit crabs
1 hichiker crab
3 lg. feather dusters
9 soft corals
3 hard corals

I am thinking about adding more fish. The ones I am thinking about are all fairly small.

Here is a list of what I like. Could you tell me how hard it is to find or if it is really expensive?

Red sea mimic blenny
blue streak cardinalfish
chalk bass
neon goby
mandrain goby

Which, if any, would do well in my tank. How many more fish do you think I could add. By the way, I do a 5 gal water change every week or two and my pH is 8.1, salinty at 1.27, no amonia or nitrite but about 30ppm of nitrate. Thanks for your help, Jacob.

 

[a_free_bird73]

As a personal choice, if nitrates are above 10ppm then I would not add any more fish regardless of stocking level, until I find a way to drop it back down.

Basically, I use nitrate concentration in relation to my setup, maintainance and feeding scheduals to tell me when the tank can no longer handle any further additions (and in some cases even having to remove something).

 

[Jacob Abshire]

I would like to hear other opnions about the nitrate. I have been going by what I read in books (30ppm) and from my test kit which says any thing less than 40 ppm is safe. I just added about 30lbs of sand to the sysem from my 20 I just took down. Do you think that will help?

On a side note, what are good reef safe fish/inverts to stir up my sand?

 

[VoodooChild]

Like Free Bird said, I'd try and get the nitrates down before you add anything else, if anything for your corals. 5 fish is a good amount for a 46, and I personally wouldn't put any more in. However, if you were too, it would have to be something small. If you like the gobies, perhaps a Stonagobiops nematodes (don't the the common name, but they're easy to find up here) or a yellow watchman goby. They stay small and have all the interesting traits of the mimic goby. Your hermits should be good for stirring up the DSB.

 

[mogurnda]

I'm in general agreement about with the others about stocking. You're about at capacity. Neon gobies are small enough not to be a problem, if you are dying to get new fish.
IMO your nitrate isn't a problem in and of itself. I have had fish, corals and motile invertebrates in 80 ppm for weeks at a time without blinking. But that's short term. I agree with the others that it probably means that your stocking is about at capacity and that the food input is exceeding the ability of the live rock and sand to denitrify. If the levels fo any higher, you may start seeing inhibition of calcification. Are the corals expanded and growing?
As far as sand stirring, the hermits should keep the surface clean, and you don't want a lot of stirring otherwise. A fighting conch couldn't hurt. A detritivore kit from ipsf or inland aquatics would probably be a good idea. If you can keep your peppermint shrimp from eating all the little worms and stars.
My true ocellaris (they hate being called false percs) do plenty of stirring around their favorite spawning site, so the clowns may soon do more stirring than you want.
Your tank sounds very nice. Post pix if you can.

 

[Jacob Abshire]

Thanks for the info. I think I might try a little goby of some kind, but not right now. I just added about 30 lbs of sand from a 20 gal tank I was taking down. Maybe in a few weeks my nitrate level will go down because of this?

As for your question mogurnda, my corals are all opened up hugh all of the time execpt for my cabbage leather which has been sheeding (don't know what else to call it) and my gorgian which only opens about 2 days after I feed the tank. None of them grow a whole lot execpt for the shrooms, star poylop, trumpet, slipper, and leathers. Thanks for everyones help, hopefully there is a pic attached to this. Jacob.

 

[mogurnda]

Looks great. Keep up the good work!

 

[cathy]

I read somewhere that for a mixed fish/invert tank, a guideline to follow is one inch of fish per every 7.6 gallons tank capacity. I have a 46 bow front two, so I've set my personal fish limit at 6 inches!