Fish/bioload advice

[curiousphil]

I think that I've already got a lot of fish in terms of bioload, and some of my fish have the potential to become quite large.  But I'm not happy at all with how many are out in the open when I'm sitting and watching the tank - they all like to hide!  Probably doesn't help that I keep the tank down in the basement, so they spend 90% of the time alone in the dark with no outside interaction.  But I do enjoy watching fish and creating a relationship with them and would love to have more than just two or three fish out and playing when I'm around the tank.  They also add a flair of colour to balance out my tank which is overwhelmingly full of blue, purple of green.

So as a result I've been wanting to add some more fish for quite some time, ideally a group of 3 lyretails.  And Big Al's just got in a shipment of some nice fat specimens.  But I'd like some feedback on what others consider a high/low bioload before making a firm decision. Here's my stock list......

Fish
-Regal blue tang (approx 3")
-Sailfin tang (approx 2.5")
-Kole tang (approx 2.5")
-Blue/green chromis x2
-Ocellaris clowns x2 (approx 2-2.5")
-Comet grouper - aka marine betta (easily 6" but the tail fin makes up half of that)
-Blue streak wrasse (common cleaner wrasse, about 2.5-3")

Corals
-SPS frags x35(approx?)
-LPS corals x3
-Zoa frags x3
-Green star polyp

Cleanup crew
-Too many snails to count, started with a ReefCleaners.org 65gal quick crew which provides >100 snails and they keep reproducing
-Bristle worms up the wazoo
-Peppermint shrimp x2 supposedly - I haven't seen them in months


All that in about 100 gallons of water, 90g display, approx 120-130 lbs liverock.  Running a JNS ConeS CO-2 skimmer.  So what do y'all think?  High/low/medium bioload?  I'm under the 10 fish per gallon rule, but some of them will get pretty big.  Room for 3 anthias?  Suggestions for another type of fish that will be social and add a flair of colour?  Thanks in advance.

 

[jroovers]

I think you have room for three anthias, but I wouldn't be worried about having too light of a bioload with that list.  Your three tangs all sound small, and they will take a up quite a bit of load, especially as they get bigger.  I recently took out my yellow tang and my regal, and was really surprised at how much load this reduced in the tank.  Anthias to be healthy do require a good bit of feeding too, really shouldn't be any less than twice a day. I added some chromis to my tank, and plan on adding four more anthias to make up some of the lost load - some of my corals paled out due to my decreased feeding, combined with heavy skimming.

 

[curiousphil]

Thanks for the feedback Jordan, I suspected I would be on the high side of the bioload scale and quite possibly to high to consider adding anything else. 

I've got an autofeeder that runs twice a day, and I hand feed various foods 2-3 times a week, so I think I'll be able to keep the anthias happy, and if they aren't getting enough I could always bump the feeder up to 3 spins per day.

 

[Poseidon]

Thanks for the feedback Jordan, I suspected I would be on the high side of the bioload scale and quite possibly to high to consider adding anything else. 

I've got an autofeeder that runs twice a day, and I hand feed various foods 2-3 times a week, so I think I'll be able to keep the anthias happy, and if they aren't getting enough I could always bump the feeder up to 3 spins per day.

that seems like alot of food...
i feed my fish once a day, and they are all fat and healthy..

 

[curiousphil]

I think the fish are probably eating less than when I was hand feeding every day, I have problems with portion control lol.  The autofeeder only serves tiny portions, each fish barely has an opportunity to get more than a couple flakes/pellets at each feeding.  If you are familiar with the Eheim autofeeder, it's got notches for the food hatch.  I have the hatch open just two notches, which is approx 3mm looking at my ruler.  I think I have filled the feeder twice since Christmas when I got it.

It was spinning once per day but sometimes the blue tang can be a bit of a bully and I noticed that some fish were not getting any food, so I upped the frequency to once in the afternoon and once in the evening.  Spinning twice a day seems to be keeping the blue tang from eating more than her share.

When you feed once per day, how much do you add?  I've never really seen a good answer about how much to feed except "less than they can consume within a minute."  Problem is, food won't last for a minute in my tank!!  The flow in my tank quickly pulls food into the overflow unless I take a pinch and release it just under the surface of the water, so I've positioned the feeder over one of the more turbulent places where food is likely to be sucked down into the water column.  Some still manages to escape through the overflow. I need a feeding ring, I think.

 

[jroovers]

I have my tunzes on a multi timer and I hit the food timer when feeding, which shuts the powerheads off for 10 minutes.  There is still some flow from the return pump, but it is pretty minimal and most of the food stays suspended.  Hard to do that with an auto feeder though. 

It is definitely a balancing act - you want to ensure your fish are getting enough food to thrive, and in turn ensure your corals are getting the right amount of nutrient, but not too little or too much - and all this feeding is balanced out with how much you skim and your other methods of nutrient export.  I find that I can get pretty good balance with fairly dry skimming, and feeding twice daily (at each feeding either NLS pellets, angel diet, a small chunk of rinsed frozen Mysis, or 1 cube of cyclopeeze), plus adding a small amount of nori for my tang.  And also doing once weekly water changes.  However, each tank is going to vary depending on bioload, lighting, corals, and nutrient export.  All you can really do is observe carefully and adjust your inputs and your outputs to make them match as best as possible.  Maybe writing down your feedings versus your export practices will help you fine tune your husbandry and lead you to the best result. 

Do you have to use the autofeeder?  I find when the powerheads are on, too much food gets blasted away and to keep the fish well fed, you have to feed more than you otherwise would if the powerheads were off.

 

[curiousphil]

I don't have to use the autofeeder but I find it helps in a couple of ways.  My schedule can vary a lot from day to day, sometimes I won't have any opportunity to visit the tank until just before bed time.  Also as I mentioned I'm bad at portion control lol, my pinches are too big and I can be a sucker for when the fish look like they are asking fro more, so the autofeeder helps with consistency as well as frequency.  And if I get the anthias which require frequent feedings due to their short gastrointestinal tracts then I will definitely need to keep using it, because I am really only around to feed between 6 and 9 every night.

When I handfeed I do turn off the pumps which definitely helps.  The Jebao pumps have a 5min feed mode.  I may be able to get away with using the autofeeder once daily in the afternoon while I'm not home, and then make an effort to try and hand feed at the same time every evening so that I can use the feed mode.

But I think I've got the system pretty balanced right now, I don't feel like I'm overfeeding.  On the input side, the autofeeder gives two "pinches" of food per day, and then a couple times a week I'll throw in either a bit of PE mysis or a piece of seaweed.  On the export side I've got GFO, biopellets, skimming and weekly water changes.  Still trying to tune the skimmer but I think I've got it down now.  Skimming fairly dry while still getting a good 1/3 cup of black gunk every few days.  Oh and I also run filter socks at the bottom of my return pipes that I change every other day to keep stuff from building up and decaying in my sump.

Anyways this thread wasn't so much about feeding as it was about the amount of livestock in the tank, and I think I have my answer!  I'm going to pick up a few anthias tomorrow.

 

[AdInfinitum]

I don't have to use th[quote author=curiousphil link=topic=8451.msg90525#msg90525 date=1397679732]

Anyways this thread wasn't so much about feeding as it was...

Oh but it is now....lol

Mine get fed 6 times a day tiny quantities 4 x pellets with the autofeeder and 2 x frozen since so many marine fish are constant graders.  Having to adapt to "meals" tends to cause gradual degeneration of the liver, although there is enough life in most tanks for them to graze so I'm sure it is not necessary in most cases.