carefully planning my 34gal. sea max

It also really depends on how well your tanks ability to rid itself of waste. I keep 5 fish, and one is a tang, in my 40 gallon. Add in my inverts and coral (which also add to the bioload) and technically my tank should be overstocked. I also have 80+ pounds of rock, 50 pounds of sand, and a filter and skimmer that are rated for over twice my tank size, and my params are fine.
If it were me, and the chromis are the most fish you want, I would slowly add everything else first, then start adding the chromis. give 2 weeks in between each one you add, and keep a close watch on water quality. Your tank will let you know when its at its max

 

But it's not so much a water quality issue rather than oxygen availability. Oxygen availability is less in saltwater than freshwater, which is why you can keep a ton of fish in freshwater without detrimental effects. You would need something to measure oxygen levels.

If you want a school of chromis, I fear you may have to think about starting out with a bigger tank.

Dude have you tried Craig's list? There are some decent deals there.

 

The RSM is a fairly good tank as I have one as well. A couple of thing will need to be upgraded though. For the changes I have done to mine I probably could have purchased a well equiped 75. The skimmer works fairly decent replaced mine with a tunze doc 9002. One of my return pumps took a dump a little over a month ago so I replaced them with a maxi jet 600. Removed bio rings and now am using a coil denitrater. Using chemi-pure elite instead of the activated carbon. There is also a korralia 1 and a korralia nano for additional flow. I run a air stone as well. IMO the more oxygen in the water foro the fishies the less stress on them.

 

It's about both, waste removal and oxygen availablility. The skimmer that comes with the 29 RSM is not rated for a bigger tank, so you'd have to limit the number of fish. I, personally, would just not add the Chromis. The Clown Pair would give you plenty of entertainment.

 

Hi I have just 2xpeculur clowns and a shooter blemmie / 2xemerald crabs 3xpeppermint shrimp's. 18kg live rock and a 2inch deep sand bed only. I have a 300ltr/hr pinwheel skimmer running and my only problem is the nitrate is 10/20 ppm. It's 13mth's old and looking good. So it can be done. Sorry the tank is a 100ltr jewel tank with my own fabricated open light unit encorperating 8 led's and 1x590x24w t5. Regards plankton.

 

thanks!
i did my research too late. i went for this tank cuz i thought it will save me money cuz everything is in there, but so far lots of red sea max owner upgraded their skimmer to tunze 9002.

plus korilia pump, hydro flotating deflector, ATO system and chiller.

it seems though the lightning doesnt need to be upgraded, you can grow coral and clams with it, no need to get metal halide.

 

im going for 2 percula clown fish, yellow watchman goby and purple firefish.
that should be ok, aight?.

 

Yeah you should be ok with that amount of fish. There is plenty of light for corals. The clam on the other hand need intense lighting to grow. I would not suggest one in a RSM. I have a couple corals in mine ant they are doing fine. Are you in the cycling stage yet. I wouldnt use the nitro-bac solution that came with it. Instead once the water clears up Get yourself one yellow tail damsel to put in there. Don't run the light for around a month or so until it cycles. Then you can start gradually turing the lights on to establish the photoperiod.

 

That fish stock is much more reasonable.
As for the clams, I suggest looking at the stickies under this thread: Clams - 3reef Forums
I dont know who told you they were keeping clams under stock SM lighting, but I would like to know how long the clam ACTUALLY lived under those lights.

 

ok thanks.