Suggestions.

I have a 55g reef tank going and need suggestions for coral and fish.. this is currently what i have
-Green Star Polyps
-2 heads of frogspawn
- 2 trumpet corals
-some other random polyps
-2 cleaner shrimp
-2 anemones
-4 clownfish
-1 powder blue tang
-alot of cleanup crew(snails hermits ect)
-1 lawnmower blennie
-1 scooter blennie
-1 sand shifting star
-2 mushrooms
-5 kenyas
-flame scallop

need some suggestions with corals and like 1 or 2 more fish please and thank you

 

Personally I think you have way to many fish now...and to many anemones..Dont guess that helped huh

 

all systems are different

general stocking guideline in saltwater is 1 inch fish per 4 gallons of water
thus in a 55 - 14 inches of fish would be considered on the limit
if you have a sump the extra water capacity of the sump could be included and thus increase the total of fish you could keep

with 4 clowns , 2 blennies and a powder blue in that tank, allowing for the potential adult sizes of those fish, IMO you are already over capacity as far as fish are concerned

corals on the other hand, as they are not massive contributors to the bio load, you could add more of those , but with 2 nems in the mix already any thing you do add, may cause these Nems to go wandering ( new corals placed change the existing water flow direction etc)

so whatever you do add, add it one piece at a time and monitor the behaviour of the nems in case they get those Itchy feet and go on their travels
(many a settled nem in plain view has ended up at the back of the reef due to subsequent introductions)


Steve

 

ok thanks

 

I fore see a problem with your Powder Tang, he will out-grow your 55 before you know it.



Luna

 

You could include the sump for gallons of water for total tank size but how many fish will be swimming in the sump. I dont see how it would be included...I have a 55 and only 2 fish...I want more though...maybe 5 fish at the most...
JMO
Danny

 

Hi Danny, good point

the tanks capacity to support life - have you ever seen tanks that look really overstocked, yet the fish look OK? they achieve this by having massive additional water capacity out of view , the fishes movements are restricted by the tank size for sure, but the tanks capacity to support life is governed to a degree by the total amount of water in the system (or the capacity of the biological filtration system to process the wastes of the fishes in the DT)

so if the OP has a 55 gallon tank with a sump/ fuge combo with 20 gallons of water in, then I would say ( provided they where not all fish that require a lot of swimming space) he could use 75 gallons divided by 4 to work out his stocking capacity

Steve

 

you are going to have a super hard time keeping that powder blue healthy. Tank is way too small for him and I would get rid of it.

 

I was just pickin atcha Steve, I dont see why the Blue would be unhealthy unless he is already large and not able to be mobile like he should?
Danny

 

they are open water swimmers. They really need the space and the 55 just doesn't have it. Stress from this will screw their immune system every which way.