The Fish Rule?
 

What would you guys say is a good general "fish rule" when deciding how many fish can go into a reef tank? Of course there are variables, but any opinions?

I've heard 1" of fish per 10gal of water, but it looks like many people go way beyond this rule.

It depends ... I think you really have too many factors to make a broad statement as to this many inches of fish per gallon

Bottom line is filtration

if you can remove as much fish waste as the fish produce then your tank can support whatever that number turns out to be ... only have to look at commercial fish hatcheries to see mega-filtration in action. A larger more efficient skimmer will allow you to keep more fish than a smaller skimmer or no skimmer as well as more live rock.

the other thing to consider is if you are stressing out certain kinds of fish either in closed quarters or forcing them to share space with incompatable fish

You have to look at your own tank and pay close attention to what happens when you add another fish ... I have tried to resist adding more than one fish per month to allow the biological/mechanical filters to catch up to the increased bioload.

Cheers

Try this, it tells you the inches of fish you can keep

http://www.aquasite.com/knowledge/ca...tor.shtml#calc

Well according to that calculator here are the results for my tank ... on the side are the actual specs that I am running

AquaSite Calculation Results
Standard Units
Water Type .................................... Saltwater Reef
Tank Material ................................. Glass
Tank Shape .................................... Rectangle
Length ............................................ 96 in
Width ............................................. 24 in
Height ............................................. 31 in
Wall Thickness ............................... 5/8 in
Tank Volume .................................. 309 gal (US)
Tank Material Weight ...................... 6575 lbf
Water Volume ................................. 309 gal (US)
Water Weight .................................. 2631 lbf
No Substrate Depth Declared
Approximate Total Weight ................ 9206 lbf
Approx. Total Fish Length ................ 25 inches of fish 27 in of fish
Mass Required for 1 PPM ................ 1193.49 mg
Recommended Lighting ..................... 928 total watts 1980 total watts
Recommended Pump Flow ............... 2597 gallons per hour 8200 GPH

What it does not specify is how much filtration and what type would be required to be sustainable ... also if I had only 2597 GPH circulation my corals would not be very happy

These generic calculators IMO dont work in real life :frown:

Cheers

HEy Steve, Good post,

I'm just wondering?
How do you get all your fish to line up on the ruler?
:rolleyes:

Good points. It looks like the inches per gallon method is similar to the watts per gallon lighting method. I don't think that calculator takes coral health into account so it may work for a FO tank.

:lol:

I only have 9 inches... of fish :)

Mine's a whopping 15 inches...my tank is very lucky :cool: :razz:

hehe. My tanks just a baby tho :)

So true, and do you include the tail in the total length :question:

Hmmmm, the John Holmes of aquaria :lol:

You don't have to line them up. Just measure each fish with a temp corrected tape and add up the total. Oh, remeasure the old ones once in a while as they get longer if you feed them well.

well one of my favroite subjects. there is no "inch" calculation and filtration is not the answer either. each fish has its own unique requirments and area of "prefered" swimming you must balance this among your fish so they are not interfearing with each others teratories. but there is a "generic" rule that I find better than inch/gal if you need to use a guidling it is inch/square foot of surface area. this is good because it takes into account the O2 requirments for the fish and can be modified by skimmers and such. BUT the best piece of advice I can give you is to stock lighter than average instead of heavyer.

Steve

The Fish RULE
 

Yes, they do.. :mrgreen: :razz: :lol: