The title is quite self explanatory.
Here is some info about my reef tank. The volume is 30ish gallons, dimensions 32”x14”x16”h. There's plenty of space for fish to hide and to create territories, but still a good amount of open water to swim from side to side, I'll add a photo below.
Current stocklist is: pair of regular clowns, 3 blue/green chromis, 1 sixline wrasse, 1 Bengai cardinal (planning to add another to complete the couple as soon as I discover the sex of mine).
Latest ATI ICP reports NO2 at 0, NO3 at 0.something, PO4 at 0,03, so very low nutrients. At the moment I run biological media (A LOT) and a chaeto fuge set at 7 hours during the night. I feed 1 to 2 frozen cubes daily + hikari pellets sporadically during the week. I'm soon adding a protein skimmer (bubble Magus curve 5), mainly to add a soda lime filter → increase pH to help the acros (and general benefits of a skimmer for the corals). I plan to run it only a few hours during the night to not strip even more the tank.
I realise that's already a quite stocked tank, but looking at it it feels “empty” of moving fish. Clowns live very close to the euphyllia in the right corner, the cardinal is stationary in the left under the torch, sixline scouts all the caves and the rockwork, especially the back, never getting far from it or exposed in the water column. The 3 chromis are really the only ones to swim in the open all the time and seem to fill the place a little.
I'm fully aware that in such a small space overcrowding can be very easy, but I was wondering whether, considering my very low pollutants, I could increase the fish stocklist, and bioload. I feel like a tang or a bigger fish, a “centerfish” always swimming would be the best solution to the eye, but for obvious reasons I can't add anything like that.
Any suggestions? What would you do?
Watching closely, you can spot all the fish I mentioned, doing exactly what I described
Here is some info about my reef tank. The volume is 30ish gallons, dimensions 32”x14”x16”h. There's plenty of space for fish to hide and to create territories, but still a good amount of open water to swim from side to side, I'll add a photo below.
Current stocklist is: pair of regular clowns, 3 blue/green chromis, 1 sixline wrasse, 1 Bengai cardinal (planning to add another to complete the couple as soon as I discover the sex of mine).
Latest ATI ICP reports NO2 at 0, NO3 at 0.something, PO4 at 0,03, so very low nutrients. At the moment I run biological media (A LOT) and a chaeto fuge set at 7 hours during the night. I feed 1 to 2 frozen cubes daily + hikari pellets sporadically during the week. I'm soon adding a protein skimmer (bubble Magus curve 5), mainly to add a soda lime filter → increase pH to help the acros (and general benefits of a skimmer for the corals). I plan to run it only a few hours during the night to not strip even more the tank.
I realise that's already a quite stocked tank, but looking at it it feels “empty” of moving fish. Clowns live very close to the euphyllia in the right corner, the cardinal is stationary in the left under the torch, sixline scouts all the caves and the rockwork, especially the back, never getting far from it or exposed in the water column. The 3 chromis are really the only ones to swim in the open all the time and seem to fill the place a little.
I'm fully aware that in such a small space overcrowding can be very easy, but I was wondering whether, considering my very low pollutants, I could increase the fish stocklist, and bioload. I feel like a tang or a bigger fish, a “centerfish” always swimming would be the best solution to the eye, but for obvious reasons I can't add anything like that.
Any suggestions? What would you do?
Watching closely, you can spot all the fish I mentioned, doing exactly what I described