Am I massively overstocked?

[hemmroid]

So I have a 28 gallon lowboy tank. It has the footprint of a 40 but it’s only 28 gals & I’m just using a HOB aqua clear 70. I do weekly/biweekly wc or top offs depending on my params.

Here is what’s in the tank currently:

Black nox Pygmy angelfish
Valentini puffer
2 skunk clowns
3 Molly miller blennies
2 bonded hi fin gobies
Indigo dottyback
2 trochus snails
1pink sea urchin
1 peppermint shrimp
3 blue hermits

Not counting beginner nems/corals I’ve started to add. I do also want to add macroalgae to this tank eventually & I’m cultivating some in the 10.

Haven’t had any aggression, or real problems with the tank besides algae here and there. I added plenty of rock so I think that’s part of my success with no aggression but the tank is new, only 10 months old. Added the fish slowly over time, first one being the black nox. He used to be shy but now greets me with the others. I love him & how he swims through the rock, but looking online it says they actually need a 70?? I was advised it would be okay by a coworker with wayyyyyy more experience & knowledge than me, he keeps bigger tanks with some really cool fish. Will I have to move them into a bigger tank? They seem happy but obviously I’m new and just bc it’s okay today doesn’t mean it will be years down the line.

Params:
Ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 10ppm
Alk 8.7
Calc 470
Salinity 1.025

I will be getting a magnesium & phosphate test kit soon. I feed morning and pm. Ignore the fact that I need to top off my freshwater betta tanks LOL, u can see the nox at the front in the pic.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Yes IMO the tank is overstocked. Just because you haven't seen aggression yet doesn't mean it will always be peaceful, I had a situation where the tank was peaceful for 3 years then one fish went rogue. It might work it might not, but I think its too early to call a success, success is at least 2 or 3 years IMO.

I also don't think that a hob filter will be able to keep up, and I would hope that feeding is not reduced to compensate. I don't see any powerheads in the tank so that will contribute to algae. Just my 2 cents, good luck

 

[hemmroid]

Yes IMO the tank is overstocked. Just because you haven't seen aggression yet doesn't mean it will always be peaceful, I had a situation where the tank was peaceful for 3 years then one fish went rogue. It might work it might not, but I think its too early to call a success, success is at least 2 or 3 years IMO.

I also don't think that a hob filter will be able to keep up, and I would hope that feeding is not reduced to compensate. I don't see any powerheads in the tank so that will contribute to algae. Just my 2 cents, good luck

I used to have a power head on there but I added a uv sterilizer (gkm) a day or two ago & was worried that it would be less effective if there was also a power head. I can add it back if ideal. Are there any fish that I should move over into the 10 like for example the gobies?? Would it be fine to grow out the angel a little longer until I can get him situated in a bigger tank?

I also plan on doing a fallow soon so I was gonna get a 40-50 gallon tub to QT my fish for the 72 day cycle since it came on the live rock I got for free. My ick isn’t bad at all, it’s just on my clown skunks and comes and goes but I’d like to just eliminate it completely and start QT my corals and fish properly, still doing more research on that.

 

[Euphylliaphyle]

I agree this is overstocked and that the hob filter may not be enough with the high bio load. Having a lot of live rock will certainly help. Fwiw, you may have trouble keeping corals with a puffer and an angel.