Tank bio-load

[freddychin]

Reefers,

In your opinion, do you think that my tank bio load is high ?.

I have about 38 fishes so far in my 5 feet tank. Mostly anthias.

Details of my fishes and tank is in my signature for your reference.

The bigest fish I have is the hawaii Yellow tang which is 10 yrs.

How many fish do you all keep ?

rdgs

[freddychin]

Reefers,

Nearly forget.

Is a mixed reef.

Plan to stop when it reach the population of 50 fishes.

[Domino]

Hi! That sounds like a great big tank.

strange question to ask out of the blues...

Are you facing problems? Fish fighting? fish dying? high nitrates? If all is going for the best then it's Ok i guess. Your tank is really old, your ecosystem must be well established and balanced. If you're facing problems then bioload might be a parameter to consider.

As for a numeral target of 50, IMHO I find it better to stop when you feel it's right rather than stop when a number is reached... just my 2 cents.

[Achilles Tang]

50 anthias???!

I know of one reefer some time ago who had something like what you have and one day... his tank crashed when there was a trip and he discovered it the next day. (please don't ask me who it is and I won't reveal anyway).

The bioload was too high IMO so the oxygen levels crashed and the death of his fishes caused a huge surge in ammonia & nitrite which killed every single thing in the tank.

Not saying that you're doing it wrong.... but for the benefit of newbies to reefkeepng...

There is no magic number to put the limit on the tank inhabitants.... but you have to be sensible if you are not able to ensure pristine water conditions at all times (well, enough not to be overwhelmed by nuisance algae).

No point having a tank full of stressed creatures (could be overcrowding aggression issues, poor water quality issues, individuals dying from fighting or lack of food etc).

You have to see if your biological system or mechanical filtration system is able to sustain the bio-load LONG-TERM.

You don't want the death of just one fish to push the entire system over the edge by the cascading effect.

Freddychin, seeing that you have this tank for 13 years.... I assume you know what you're doing and its just a theoretical question?

[jellyfish]

5 footer sould be around 500L of capacity. 50 small fishes like anthias should be o.k caused it is only 1fish / 10litres. Itis slightly on the high side but still within the resonable range compare to those hongkongers who keep more than 15 diferrent tangs, butterflies & etc in a 3 footer

[freddychin]

Reefers,

Thanks for all the feedback.

Just want to get a feel and second opinion as to see if any reefers is keeping more fshes then what I am having based on the size of my tank and still doing "GREAT".

All my fishes are doing OK except for 2 Evansi which I got it from ML 2 days ago.

Still not coming out to venture, explore and to eat.

I guess I will cut down from intended 50 fishes to 40 fishes.

AT,

Yes the tanks is 13 years old but this is the first time I have so much fishes.

I do not keep anthias lst time but angels instead. Now is anthias and no more angels.

As you know angels you keep one of the particular species anthias is always more then 1

[Achilles Tang]

True! True!

Maybe you just have to be careful not to stock up on well known "impossible to keep long term" anthias like the Purple Queens. Even with multiple feedings a day, they still may not do well.

Keeping picky anthias will mean your water quality will drop as you have no choice but to feed a lot of food several times a day in a bid to make sure they keep their weight up as they are high metabolism fish.

Balancing their needs in an SPS tank is a nightmare... Trust me...

[roidan]

Actually personally i feel it's not a matter of how many fishes you can keep but how much you think your system can handle before you chicken out

for me...i believe i had more than 50 fishes, big or small in my system till some point in time when i decided that enough is enough, my tangs are getting bigger than what i have expected and with the same skimmers and nutrient export methods, it is time to reduce the bioload before the unthinkable happens....

so what i did was to net as many anthias i could during feeding times when they were distracted and as the anthias population went down, they were more aware and came a point where i could not net anymore out.

So the next step was cutting down feeding from 5 to 6 times a day to 2 to 3 times a day....even the amount of food during each feeding time was reduced..coz i realised the tangs were getting fatter and pooing more from the food rather than effectively feeding the anthias..

so, it depends on what you prefer...if you want alot of anthias, i believe it's possible to hit 50 pieces in a reasonably big tank....if you want big tangs, then just a few big ones even in a big tank can set you thinking about bioload from the way they eat and poo...

another solution was to maintain the anthias and give up the tangs...but personally i felt it's easier to get anthias back when i have the adequate system to support them..but not always easy to get back a stable community of tangs

nonetheless, here are some pics to share when i had alot of anthias

yeah...boss is right...even if you feed 5 to 6 times a day....you will not be able to sustain high population count as the months pass..that's the reason why i am getting bartletts this time round... i have frens who feed their tanks very little and yet their bartletts are doing very well

[roidan]

the reasons why i had to cut down bioload...

both my joys and my pains

[freddychin]

AT & Roidan,

Thanks for the feedback.

I have only one tang and I am keeping it this way.

I decide anthias over tang because of body mass.

Keep 1 tang can be = Keep 2 to 3 anthias. My personal calculation unless I am wrong

I feed my anthias with mysis. 5 frozen cube 3 times a day

N03 is 12.5 mg (Tropic Marlin) not too great.

[patrick123]

Bro Roidan,

I'm interested to start on anthias, and planning to train my maid to feed frozen brine shrimp and mysis shrimp so I can have at least 2-3 feeding a day. Is bartletts the better choice for people who cannot feed so often?

For a tank of 6ft, what do you think is the optimium number of anthias to make it look nice estatically and not looking too crowded?

Thanks,

Patrick

[patrick123]

AT & Roidan,

Thanks for the feedback.

I have only one tang and I am keeping it this way.

I decide anthias over tang because of body mass.

Keep 1 tang can be = Keep 2 to 3 anthias. My personal calculation unless I am wrong

I feed my anthias with mysis. 5 frozen cube 3 times a day

N03 is 12.5 mg (Tropic Marlin) not too great.

Hi bro,

"5 frozen cube 3 times a day"

Do you mean a total of 15 cubes a day? wow...

[freddychin]

Patrick,

Yep,

15 cubes. The cube are small. I believe you know that standard size of the frozen cube.

rgds

[roidan]

patrick,

i believe bartletts or dispars are the more hardy and resilient anthias around.

i seldom see my queens eating pellets in the past, but now, yes, i do see bartletts snatching pellets from my tangs in other words, i think bartletts and dispars are less fussy over food.

as for how many, it really depends on yourself. I can't suggest much....add abit at a time to avoid sudden overloading if you are not too confident till you are satisfied with the final count

15 cubes a day is nothing when you want to sustain many anthias.

if u were observant, you will notice that i was able to a sizeable number of them till may when i chickened out...

but from the beginning of the year till may is barely half a year...so for the long term success of queens, i also cannot vouch for it. but the amount of feeding is seriously demanding....

between anthias and tangs..i prefer tangs now...but given the choice, i rather have both and have a bigger tank instead

[freddychin]

Bro Roidan,

I'm interested to start on anthias, and planning to train my maid to feed frozen brine shrimp and mysis shrimp

Patrick,

Anthias are very colorful and like to swim against the current.

Best thing is reef free unless I am wrong.

Very, very "siok" to see them swimming.

I would recommend Dispar, Blue eyes and Bartlett for the start.

ML have lots of blue eyes, Female & Male. Female is common but not male. That is to my opinion.

rgds

[patrick123]

Thanks for the explanation.

Sorry to kapo the thread. I though there are some compatibility problem if you add them one by one. The new ones will get bully by the old ones...and different species of anthias don't get along well. How is this being overcome?

Sorry I'm newbies to anthias.

[roidan]

yeah..i noticed squabbling between the new bartletts and the other existing anthias including that one bartlett that was with me since months ago but i leave it to them to settle their own issues.

there is nothing much you can do except to continue to keep your parameters up and feed more for those anthias hiding to get their food till they are bold enough to venture into open waters to snatch food during feeding times

[Chris]

Best anthias to start with is dispars....not fierce, cheap, easy to feed and quite nice-looking. Barlett cost a bomb to have a school and quite fierce.

Should never leave out sunburst and sunset...my fav.

[patrick123]

Thanks bro for the advise.

[Eric]

Reefers,

In your opinion, do you think that my tank bio load is high ?.

I have about 38 fishes so far in my 5 feet tank. Mostly anthias.

Details of my fishes and tank is in my signature for your reference.

The bigest fish I have is the hawaii Yellow tang which is 10 yrs.

How many fish do you all keep ?

rdgs

Freddy, wah lao ur 13yrs old beautiful tank so season already.......no need to worry lah, just need to increase ur frequency of water change from once every 2 years to once yearly lor..........hehehe (Till now I still figuring out how ur tank can sustain 2yrs without any water change.......best part, no sand......only Tonga branches and a small DSB in ur sump..........)

Its an eye opener for me indeed and that night I have "bought" something valuable home........"THE ART OF TONGA SCAPING"

Boost the fishes up to 50 man! I'll be glad to adopt some if you think the bioload is too high then.......

Eric

[freddychin]

Eric,

Did you manage to get the tonga LR from Bio Ocean ?

I have add in 2 tunze stream and remove the 4 power head since your last visit.

Anyway, I am still trying very hard to bring my nitrate and phospate down.

I have also change the frequency of water change. Now is 3 paisl every Saturday.

Now tring to keep some SPS. Will not go for all SPS as I still prefer mixed reef.

[Eric]

Eric,

Did you manage to get the tonga LR from Bio Ocean ?

I have add in 2 tunze stream and remove the 4 power head since your last visit.

Anyway, I am still trying very hard to bring my nitrate and phospate down.

I have also change the frequency of water change. Now is 3 paisl every Saturday.

Now tring to keep some SPS. Will not go for all SPS as I still prefer mixed reef.

Wah 3 pails every sat. ar?.......so hardworking.........hehehe

2yrs change once already your tank so nice, if every week change 10% I donno how to describe liao..........comfirm ur sps will colour up faster & brighter.

I bought the tonga branches from W A K A I, cos the prices suits me better......:-)

Now both side of my tank is stack with tonga branches & I hang the LPS on them follow by the SPS colonies on the top.........makes the tank look more "packed". Luv it.........thanks to you!

I prefer mixed reef then purely SPS too partly due to the coral swaying effect..........it make the tank feels more alive.

Any LFS to intro for nice 1"-1.5" inches colourful reefsafe fishes?

Eric