# Stocking level for reef tank



## Bluegill (Nov 28, 2003)

I've been thinking that I would like to start a small reef tank. I plan on going really slow with it as far as stocking is concerned. Basically, I plan on starting with DIY agrocrete rocks, and some live rock plugs in attempt to grow some coralline algae. I'll add a few inverts to play janitor, and control unwanted algae. Once the good algae is going strong, I would like to add some soft corals, and then add one or two fish.

My question is what is an appropriate level of livestock? Is there a rule of thumb similar to that of freshwater, like so many square inches of water surface per inch of fish length? How does one determine what is appropriate number and size of corals, inverts, and fish in a saltwater tank?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

(BTW, I haven't decided on a tank size, hence the reason I haven't given one.)


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

alot of it depends on the fish / tank size. you could put a small (2inch) yellow tang in 20 - 30 gallon tank and it wont be too much bioload but the tank isnt long enough for the activity level of the tangs.. it really depends on the tank size and the fish, you could put one or two true perc. clowns in 10 - 20 gallon tank and a small species of goby or blenny.. if your talking about bigger size tanks then you always have to keep in mind how big the fish will get fully grown and the needs of that fish, then you can consider what your filtration is.. big skimmer, fuge, big clean up crew.. most reef tanks focus more on the corals and the fish bio load doesnt really come close to what it could be, personally i perfer bigger fish for fish only tanks and lots of smaller interesting fish for reef tanks..


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## Bluegill (Nov 28, 2003)

Thanks Nismo. I understand the bioload of fish fairly well. I guess I wasn't really to clear, but I'm actually more curious about the bioload created by corals and inverts, and appropriate stock levels for them, rather than fish.


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

Bluegill said:


> Thanks Nismo. I understand the bioload of fish fairly well. I guess I wasn't really to clear, but I'm actually more curious about the bioload created by corals and inverts, and appropriate stock levels for them, rather than fish.
> [snapback]818482[/snapback]​


aahhh well in that case ive never really read about corals producing much of a bioload if any or that being the reason to limit the amount of corals kept.. so i dont think its so much of a bio load in a negative side but more of a ability to provide suficient elements. most of them are either filter feeders or can live off of the photosyntetic process internally like plants, you can feed some of them brine shrimp and photo or zooplankton or cyclopese.. they do require the correct elements like iodine, calcium, stromiium, blah blah blah.. that is where things can get very indepth and some people have there own ideas of how to treat there tanks but generally everyone agree that calcium is the primary import element to add and monitor..

the other important thing with corals is that some of them will sting others and grow or even move aggresively so the number of corals you keep might be limited to the distance you need to keep between them,








if you have a bunch of zooanthids and mushrooms and non agressive coral they can pretty much cover every surface of the live rock or sometime the sand or glass until you cant really fit anymore, as long as you have enough light and the water chemistry is good then you should have a successful tank. ive seen nano tanks and large scale reef tnks that are so full of corals they have to be pruned back from taking each other over it really is awesome... 








for inverts i dont really know what the limitations for shrimp or crabs would be i think since they are primarily scavengers it would depend on how much food is available, some are opertunistic feeders, some crabs and shrimp will eat other inverts or small weak fish or corals if they dont eat enough from other food sources.. alot of people will have alot of the small hermits and nasaruios snail, and a decent amount of astrea turbo snails, you can definately find web sites that have celan up crew packages that are acurate for the quantity of animal vs teh gallonof tank so you could go with one of there packages or base your own off there sugestions.. im not sure of the amount of bio waste inverts create or if it is even enough to really be an issue..

if your going to have corals youu have to be careful of what inverts you use since some of them will eat coral, and with shrimp you have to mix and match carefully, you can have multipul pepermint shrimp, or scarlet shrimp, but you might not be able mix the two, or have more than one coral banded in the ame tank, they get pretty big and awesome looking but might eat some corals.camel shrimp look very similar to peppermints but you dont want them since they will eat corals. sexy harliquin shrimp are cool but ive read off them doing coral damage if kept in quanties higher than 1 or 2. certain crabs will be bad too, but if you stick with green emerald or arrow crabs you should be fine..

the pictures are from this months reef of the month from www.reefcentral.com if you rreally want to learn alot about reef tanks that is the place to do some reading, you can search for months and answer lots of questions before you really even need to post anyhting that site has helped me learn alot about reefs and there memebers have some of the most incredible setups you can find anywhere on the net..


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