Maximum stocking for a Red Sea XL300?

[Lavey29]

I think I have reached my stocking limit on my XL300. It is a 65g display and 15g sump set up but with the rock and sand it is probably 55g display 36x24x22. The tank is 3 months old since set up and I have recently started adding some corals. Here is a list of fish:

2 Clown fish
1 Royal Gramma
1 Bistletooth tang
1 Yellow Coris wrasse
1 Pintail fairy wrasse
1 Helricki firefish

So 7 fish total along with a cleaner shrimp, fire red shrimp, Coral banded shrimp and some snails for my clean up crew. I figure I have reached my maximum capacity in the tank for fish and inverts. I was really hoping to add a Mandarin to the tank at the end of the year when the tank matures and sustains pods well enough although I know the wrasses may out compete the Madarin for the pods.

What are you thoughts on this?

 

[blaxsun]

I think you could probably go at least 10 - since 6/7 are small and not going to grow to a large size (with the possible exception of the Yellow Coris Wrasse, but that's many years away yet). A single mandarin will probably out-hunt all your wrasses put together, but they can often be trained to accept frozen food (start with calanus, real oceanic eggs and brine shrimp).

I have 24 in my 160-gallon display, and the tank that's featured this month has 33 in a 200-gallon - so I think it really depends on your bio load and ability to export and control nutrient levels.

 

[Lavey29]

I think you could probably go at least 10 - since 6/7 are small and not going to grow to a large size (with the possible exception of the Yellow Coris Wrasse, but that's many years away yet). A single mandarin will probably out-hunt all your wrasses put together, but they can often be trained to accept frozen food (start with calanus, real oceanic eggs and brine shrimp).

I have 24 in my 160-gallon display, and the tank that's featured this month has 33 in a 200-gallon - so I think it really depends on your bio load and ability to export and control nutrient levels.

Thanks for the reply. That many huh? I keep looking at the tank and I have quite a bit of rock with a lot of caves and over hangs so there is room for fish to have defined territories but just seems like the overall swimming area will get tight as the corals mature and fill in atop the rocks. I do have an oversized skimmer and I feed moderately 3x per day and it does not appear that food gets left uneaten on the bottom thanks to the shrimp and snails.

 

[blaxsun]

Thanks for the reply. That many huh? I keep looking at the tank and I have quite a bit of rock with a lot of caves and over hangs so there is room for fish to have defined territories but just seems like the overall swimming area will get tight as the corals mature and fill in atop the rocks. I do have an oversized skimmer and I feed moderately 3x per day and it does not appear that food gets left uneaten on the bottom thanks to the shrimp and snails.

Without seeing your tank it's hard to visualize, bit mine is covered in less than 50% rock and corals at present (this will probably increase to ~50%± as it matures. I run 4x sock filters, an oversize skimmer and a pair of reactors (Zeo, Phosi-EX and carbon) and a UV filter - in addition to two large MarinePure bio blocks. I feed once a day (including seaweed). My phosphates are <0.05 ppm and my nitrates typically however between 5-10ppm. I'm working on more "biological" efforts to get the nitrates down naturally (more blue hermits and nassarius snails).

You can always add one fish at a time every month or so, monitor your phosphate and nitrates and make a determination that way. My LFS has 14 or so clownfish in their Reefer 350, and they seem to thrive. It all really depends on personal preference. But I don't think you're currently overstocked. Best of luck!

 

[Lavey29]

Without seeing your tank it's hard to visualize, bit mine is covered in less than 50% rock and corals at present (this will probably increase to ~50%± as it matures. I run 4x sock filters, an oversize skimmer and a pair of reactors (Zeo, Phosi-EX and carbon) and a UV filter - in addition to two large MarinePure bio blocks. I feed once a day (including seaweed). My phosphates are <0.05 ppm and my nitrates typically however between 5-10ppm. I'm working on more "biological" efforts to get the nitrates down naturally (more blue hermits and nassarius snails).

You can always add one fish at a time every month or so, monitor your phosphate and nitrates and make a determination that way. My LFS has 14 or so clownfish in their Reefer 350, and they seem to thrive. It all really depends on personal preference. But I don't think you're currently overstocked. Best of luck!

I have one sock and a media cup that I keep maxout and purigen in. I would like to run a reactor or 2 but not sure about the space in the cabinet around the sump. I've mainly just checked nitrate and ammonia as I added fish but my phosphate is elevated due to daily phytoplankton and Red Sea AB dosing which I have now cut back on. I went lights off for first several months but now that I'm adding corals starting to get a mild to moderate diatom phase as my lights have been running at about 50%. I really would just like to add a mandarin when my tank matures but if I can sneak in a yellow watchman goby to that would be perfect.

Thanks for your input.

 

[blaxsun]

Check out the Nyos Torq reactor with the 1.0 Body (it handles 2 media types). I found I wasn’t getting enough flow through the media baskets or nutrient export, and was having to changing the pair of filter socks far too often (1-2 days). The media basket wasn’t doing a good job filtering (it kept getting clogged up) and the water flow was just trickling through it. Moving to a separate reactor literally changed things overnight and now I only change out my socks every 3-5 days (and there’s no unfiltered water overflowing the rim).

I’m also in the process of finishing up my Reef Energy AB+ and have switched to Nyos Coral Nector instead. Full disclaimer: I’m a big Nyos fan, but having used a lot of other products (Red Sea, Aquaforest, Seachem) I’m one of the converted.