too many fish?

i have a 54g corner tank and would like to add more fish. not in any sort of a hurry, i think it may be too many for a small tank like mine.

currently i have:
5 small clowns. (1 ocellaris tank bred, 1 black and white ocellaris,3 baby mochas;and all seem to be getting along still)
1 ORA manderine

want:
2 cardinals
1 copper banded butterfly
1 wrasse(not sure which)

i have around 60lbs of live rock, and am looking to do this over the year or so.

96slowbra wrote: i have a 54g corner tank and would like to add more fish. not in any sort of a hurry, i think it may be too many for a small tank like mine.

You are absolutely correct.

With a Mandarin already in a 54 gal tank, which is the minimum size tank recommended for a Mandarin, I'd be very careful about adding another heavy bug eater like a Wrasse. Cardinals are also bug eaters so this would make the tank very heavy on the carnivore side. See the article about this here: Sea Star Newsletter - Herbivores vs. Carnivores

If this was done as you are suggesting, the increased feeding required to keep these fish alive would put the tank out of balance and a nuisance algae problem would be the end result, unless... sufficient herbivores were added and a significant external filtration, including a good Sump/Refugium, were built into the system. This is how Tileman/Brad Syphus and the public aquariums do it, behind the scenes with a huge skimmer, etc, etc..

This is my 2 cents.

down one black and white clown. he commited suicide this afternoon while i was at work. but now i have an even number of clowns...

probably gonna sell the 2 small mochas....

i had a black&white clown and a ocellaris clown that were in my first tank. i put them in my new tank along with 3 small mochas that rusty gave me when i bought his tank. in my first tank the black clown was clearly the dominant fish, when they were all introduced into the new tank at the same time he didn't really show agression for weeks. he started to get territorial again.

i checked the water yesterday:
ph 8.2
amonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate below 10

i have always had the nitrates, i am doing 2 week between water changes instead of weekly, and they are starting to go down.

when my new skimmer shows up i am going to have a small refugium for cheato and run 24/7 lighting

here is a crappy cell phone pic from tonight

i have a coralife HOB super skimmer that will shortly be replaced with a reef dynamics in sump.
temp: very steady 78
salinity: 1.025 1.026 (depends between top offs)
alk: 4.0/11.2
calcium: 550

i do spectrum pellets everyother day and 1/2 cube of brine on the opposite days. and i put a squirt of phito feast most days

10 gallon water changes

i bought the tank used a couple months ago, i think it was only up for 5 months prior. had very little rock when i bought it. i filled it with mostly premium live rock from aquatic dreams sale, and maybe 15 pounds of dry rock.

i don't think my rock has enough good bacteria yet, so i figured that 2 week water changes would help establish the rock



Edited by 96slowbra - January 03 2012 at 9:58am

I have some freshwater angelfish you could have for cheaper, seeing as they look the same!!!

I didn't read above yet, but just wanted to say it depends on what fish you want. I haven't seen Jake's new tank but I hear he already has forty fish in it.

Adam

OK, but seriously, I don't think you currently have too many fish in your setup.

In nature the Copperband picks worms, pods, etc out of live rock and off of stony corals.

In our tanks, they can get by in a large tank just browsing the rock, but most home tanks that are smaller than say, 150g, you want to be sure the fish will eat prepared food as well.