How many Fish?

[pmartin727]

I am not new to this, but I might as well be. I have had two tanks in the past. One was a complete failure (My first time around 120G). I tried to do Fish and reef and mixed a lot of bad pieces. And the LFS sold me whatever I would buy. Tough lesson learned.

The second tank I went with Aggresive fish only (2Lion, 2Triggers, 1Grouper) This was a 100G. I moved and had to get rid of it but it was up for about two years with very minimum trouble. (Very fun to watch them eat).

Now I am in an apartment (Very small) but I can not get rid of the love I have for salt water tanks. So I am now on my third tank. The problem is I think I want too much stuff for this small set up.
Coming from a larger tank I am not sure what a 30G could house comfortably.

I think the tank I have now is 30 gallons or so. Its 1 foot wide by 3 feet long box tank. (Nice view for a small apartment) I have had it up for about three months now and I am just starting to add live stock.

My Set up now:

1 CPR back Pack skimmer
1 Fluval 404
1 Power head
1 heater
JBJ Lights 70watts x2 (one blue)
1 moon light LED

In the the tank now:

30 Live rock
35 pounds of sand
4 Turbo snalls
6 hermit crabs
3 Green cromis
1 cleaner shrimp
1 Diamond Goby

Everything is alive and well the fish have been eating great.
I would like to put some frags in this week all my levels are good. but I am at a cross road. am I doing to much for this tank????

I like fish I want to put some bartlet anthias in the furture(1 male and maybe 3 female. then two a clowns and a tang. Thats 10 fish if you count the gobly and cromis. Is that too much??????

Could frags still survive or would that over do it????

Any help or suggestion for this small set up???? Thanks guys.
I'll post before and after pics soon.

Philip-

[Gobie74]

I think you would need a bigger tank for the Anthias and a Tang. I have a 50 with about the same amount of fish/inverts as you currently have, plus about 7 different corals. I consider that well stocked and probably wont be adding any more.

[papagimp]

I think the tank sounds about at full capacity right now. A 30g may hold 3 or 4 fish comfortably, and size would definatly matter, the 3 or 4 would have to be about the 3-4" range. I'd forget about adding a tang ever to that size tank, And would definatly forget about a group of anthias. I have had 10 fish in my 55g before and that was a bit overstocked in my opinion. If ya got rid of the 3 chromis, than you could probably house a pair of clowns in there with the diamond okay, but not much more than that, if anything more than that. You also have the minimum amount of live rock in there, so depending on how well the fluval is filtering for ya, may wanna consider more rock.

As for frags, if the water quality is ready, cycle completed and all, then as long as there able to survive with the lighting and flow options you have, should be fine. Don't expect as many as you would have in a 100g tank though.

[pmartin727]

Gobie,

Thanks for the imput. so do you think I'd be okay with the Clowns and Anthias? The tang I planned on was was a powder blue.But VERY small.

Upgrade to a bigger tank is not a possiblity right now (There really is no room for the 30g I have.)

Any idea on a good combo of fish and coral for this size tank. I Love the way the bartlett look (Coloful).

Would two clowns and the powder Blus tang work. minus the anthias? that would be about 7-8 fish?

Better question is what do you think the maximum number of fish I could have in this size tank?

[papagimp]

You would be okay with the clowns, but not the anthias, they'll need more room, you could get just one, but they'll thrive better with a group. A powder blue tang will not stay very small. In fact, anything less than a 6ft tank, and it's just plain cruel in my opinion. And consider that if you got a pair of clowns, there aggressive territorial attitudes may come forth a tad more in that size tank, they could easily claim the entire 30g as there own and fight anything in there territory.

You need to consider about 3 to 4 fish, and only those that stay about 3 to 4" maximum size full grown. Not 3-4" as a baby that will grow a foot or more. Forget about ever squeezing 7-8 fish in there unless you want an extremely unhappy tank. Maximum number = 4 small fish, 2-3 medium/small fish.

[pmartin727]

papgimp, you said only 3-4 fish in a 30g but than you said I am at full capacity right now?

So am I maxed out? Will adding more rock allow me to house more fish?

Like I said the tank is 3 feet long by 1 foot wide. That 3 feet makes it Apear bigger then it is. I rarely see the goby the cromis swim all over but it looks so bare.

[pmartin727]

papgimp. Thanks again.

Man it sounds Like starting a smaller tank may not have been such a good idea..... I really can not get the look I want with 3-4 Fish.


any other ideas? Besides get a bigger tank

[papagimp]

Yes, you have about 4 fish in there right now, 3 chromis and 1 diamond goby, I would consider that full capacity. Adding more rock will allow the fish that are in there to get full benefits from the water being filtered better. Not really going to allow you to add more fish, maybe a larger fish (4-5"). The tank being 3' x 1' does give a tad more surface area than say a typical 29g tank, so you could probably get away with an added fish or two, but would add more rock before you did that. Just my opinion, others may say the 30lbs is fine, I prefer 1.5-2lbs per gallon as my minimum. Keep in mind that those 3 chromis are damselfish, so if you tried to add a pair of clowns to that tank, well, damselfish usualy do not get along with other damselfish. 30g in my opinion just really isn't large enough to try a nice full community reef tank, just doesn't have the room for enough variety of fish. I like 29g for a single species tank, with maybe 1 pair in there, but not much else. I"m currently building 2 differnt 29g, one stricly for a pair of clowns and one for a pair of bangaii's, but will have no other fish in them.

In my honest opinion, if this was my tank, I would remove all the chromis and the diamond, and find a 3 or 4 fish that will stay in view more often and be more active, rely on nassarius and cerith snails for sand turning, leaving the diamond goby for a larger system.

[papagimp]

Originally posted by pmartin727
any other ideas? Besides get a bigger tank

I think it would make a spectacular species tank, for breeding purpsoses maybe? Maybe 3-4 yellowstriped cardinalfish and something else, pygmy angel?

[pmartin727]

that make sense thanks