75 Gallon Help

[WitheredMantis]

Hi all,

I have really been posting on here a lot lately. I have a few husbandry questions about a 75gallon reef tank.

So to start, I have a 75 gallon predator-driven aquarium. I am wondering how much of a bioload my setup can handle, as I would like to keep predator fish along with the usual “reef” fish. I do not plan on keeping any sensitive corals.

My filtration includes:

Reef-Octopus 100 HOB Protein Skimmer
A canister filter
Lots of macro algae

I do not own a sump, but my main look for the aquarium is a lagoon, rather than a reef. I have a blanket of caulerpa on the sandbed, and another species is covering the rocks. I also have dragons breath macro algae. I trim this weekly, and so far it has helped me keep all my nitrate at 0. I do sometimes have phosphates in the water, but I am ok with that as it also feeds my algaes, and they grow really nicely in my tank.

With the filtration I have, along with the huge amount of macro algae that grows in my tank, I was wondering what my bioload “limit” would be. I want my fish to be as healthy as possible, and my tank has been running well for over 3 years (previously a 45gallon, then a 55, and just transferred to the 75 recently.) With just my snowflake eel, a dwarf lion, and a filefish. My lion passed a couple months ago as, and im assuming it was due to a nutrient deficiency as he was fed primarily ghost shrimp and by the time I figured out that wasn’t the best for him it was too late. In the passed few months I got the rest of the fish I have now.

My current fish/invertebrate stocklist goes as follows:

Snowflake Moray Eel (I know he will get upwards of 2’ when at max size. He does not bother my fish or shrimp)
Copperband Butterfly
2x Banggai Cardinal
Blue Reef Chromis
Green Matted Filefish
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
3x Peppermint Shrimp
Red Serpent Star
Brittle Star
Nassarius Snails
Multiple Hermit Crab species
Sand Dollar
Kenyan Tree Corals

I was wondering if I added the following, if my tank could handle it without affecting the health of my fish:

Comet Grouper (Marine Betta)
Dwarf Fuzzy Lionfish

I am open to all advice, as the health of my animals is whats most important to me.

Thank you !

 

[fishguy242]

hi sounds ok,but possibly few shrimp,cromis could become meals

 

[WitheredMantis]

Right, I was going to attempt to get smaller specimens of the lion and betta so they could “grow up” with the cleaner shrimp and hopefully see him as a helpful asset more than a meal. And the chromis is around 3” and fat, 4.5” if you include his long tail. I dont see him becoming a meal for either fish lol, same with the banggai’s. Thank you !

 

[fishguy242]

thats cool,cleaners usually ok if fish are well fed,peps dinner

 

[WitheredMantis]

Yeah I originally got the peps for aiptasia control along with my file. I grew attached to them, though. If i get a lion or betta, i might just set up a 5 gallon tank for just the peps and cleaner.

 

[fishguy242]

cool if cleaner is big has a underhang to hide is pretty cool to watch preds go to station,50/50 chance just my opinion

 

[WitheredMantis]

cool if cleaner is big has a underhang to hide is pretty cool to watch preds go to station,50/50 chance just my opinion

That would be really cool, but I don’t know if i’d want to chance him being vulnerable to a couple of hungry predators 24/7 haha. I’d love to hear other opinions on whether or not you think my system could support these two fish in addition to everything else !