Bio load?

[Kial]

how many fish is to many?

I have a 4ft, 400L tank. My current stock is

2 small clowns
1 firetail goby
1 copperband butterfly
1 royal dotty back
3 trochus
4 nassarius
1 sea cucumber

Do corals effect this also as I have a few already?

Don’t know exactly what more fish I want to add but would be good to have an idea of what I have to play with.

 

[GoVols]

how many fish is to many?

I have a 4ft, 400L tank. My current stock is

2 small clowns
1 firetail goby
1 copperband butterfly
1 royal dotty back
3 trochus
4 nassarius
1 sea cucumber

Do corals effect this also as I have a few already?

Don’t know exactly what more fish I want to add but would be good to have an idea of what I have to play with.

Most corals don't effect bio-load, but anemones would add to it.

Bio-Load can be limited to fish aggression, size of each mature fish and things like how much live rock or bio-media that you have.

Some reefers carbon dose to help nitrates and I tumble GFO to keep phosphates in check.

JMO, But you got a nice and comfortable Bio-Load for your 400l and water changes may be all you need to do.

 

[Kial]

I do 10-20% water changes weekly, and I still get hair algae and cyano. I also siphon the sand fortnightly.

I'm running a larger skimmer for my system as well now. Would you say maybe 2 more fish would be fine?

 

[Kial]

Also I don’t have a gfo reactor am don’t seem to have a huge amount of space in the sump. Would mesh bags with gfo help?

 

[mjlash22]

I do 10-20% water changes weekly, and I still get hair algae and cyano. I also siphon the sand fortnightly.

I'm running a larger skimmer for my system as well now. Would you say maybe 2 more fish would be fine?

I don't think adding 2 more will kill your bio-load. Should be fine there. Your algae outbreaks are more than likely due to high nitrate/phosphate levels. If you're not attacking those with something like GFO/NoPox, may need to increase water changes.

Also I don’t have a gfo reactor am don’t seem to have a huge amount of space in the sump. Would mesh bags with gfo help?

GFO does not work well in media bags, best in a reactor where it can tumble. Most reactors can be mounted. Do you have space on the walls in your sump area?

 

[Kial]

I have space on the back walls of sump but I feel it may just become a pain changing it out like that.
I do have a tiny compartment where my old skimmer pump would sit so I'll have to measure it and figure out if one will fit there.
What are you adding into your reactor?

 

[Porpoise Hork]

What are the results of water tests look like?
What kind of lighting are you running and how long per day?
What kind of food do you use and do you feed heavy, or light?
Do you have any type of macro algae in the sump?

 

[Sabellafella]

how many fish is to many?

I have a 4ft, 400L tank. My current stock is

2 small clowns
1 firetail goby
1 copperband butterfly
1 royal dotty back
3 trochus
4 nassarius
1 sea cucumber

Do corals effect this also as I have a few already?

Don’t know exactly what more fish I want to add but would be good to have an idea of what I have to play with.

5 small fish certainly isn't much lol. Ive had upwards 15 fish in my 450L but only 2 of them were larger-without any issues.

 

[Kial]

What are the results of water tests look like?
What kind of lighting are you running and how long per day?
What kind of food do you use and do you feed heavy, or light?
Do you have any type of macro algae in the sump?[/QUOTE

Due to test water again tomorrow but my last readings were,
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-5 (have hair algea so I’m guessing not it’s higher but being used up by that)
PH- 8.2
Calcium-400
Magnesium-1500
Alk-8

I try to feed once a day now I have my copperband, 1 cube of frozen brine. Reef roids once a week.

No macro algea in sump either. Just Reef octo skimmer and bag of carbon.

 

[Kial]

5 small fish certainly isn't much lol. Ive had upwards 15 fish in my 450L but only 2 of them were larger-without any issues.

Awesome. I’m guessing your running a reactor etc as well?

 

[Porpoise Hork]

On the Reef Roids, are you dispersing it in the tank or are you target feeding your corals?

For the food, brine shrimp do not have much in the way of nutrients fish need, You might want to consider switching to frozen mysis instead. One thing I found that really helps is rinsing it prior to feeding. Get a micro screen tea strainer off of Amazon or something and put a cube in and run water over it to that it out and rinse off any of the additional juice that just turns into algae food anyway. The mysis don't break down as fast giving your clean up crew time to do their job.

Having nitrates at 5 isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's when you also have phosphates in the tank that the combination of the two can provide enough nutrient to encourage algae growth. One thing to keep in mind is depending on the types of corals you have, you will need to have some level of nitrates and phosphates in the water to ensure the health and color intensity. Having macro algae like chaeto in the sump will utilize a large percentage of those nutrients and will eventually out compete what's in the DT for it and should over time eliminate it. You will probably have to manually remove the GHA once you have nice crop of macro algae in the sump.

 

[Kial]

I target feed the reef rods with pumps off. After 15 mins or so pumps go back on.
Yeah I will get some mysis next as the brine is almost out now anyway. I also give some flakes every now and again.
I do try and drain the water from the frozen cubes first as well.
Would the cheato have to be in a algae reactor or can it just be placed in a compartment with a light on it?

 

[Porpoise Hork]

You can put the cheato in a reactor provided it has ample light and is in the right spectrum for best growth. The downside to doing this is you will be opening it up regularly to thin it out and depending on your setup this could be a messy exorcise. The other option is to put it into the the sump with an inexpensive LED grow light on it. By going this route you can likely go longer in between cheato harvests as the sump will have a larger area for it to grow, as well as alternate the lighting schedule so the sump light is on when the DT lighting is off helping to offset the PH drop overnight. BRS did a full test series with macro algae, nutrient export effectiveness and what lighting method worked the best.

 

[Kial]

Ive purchased a gfo reactor so I’ll give this a go first. If that fails I’ll try the cheato route, sounds like a lot of maintenance haha. By putting it into the sump chamber with the led, wouldn’t I start to get the usual algea in the sump as well as the cheato growing?

 

[BootyPup]

Ive purchased a gfo reactor so I’ll give this a go first. If that fails I’ll try the cheato route, sounds like a lot of maintenance haha. By putting it into the sump chamber with the led, wouldn’t I start to get the usual algea in the sump as well as the cheato growing?

As long as there is some good cheato, the usual algae shouldn't overwhelm. But I would think there would be some usual algae, its not really a big deal though down in the sump.

 

[Kial]

I may look into that then as I have a compartment in the sump which isnt to big which I could put some in. depending where my reactor goes though

 

[Porpoise Hork]

As long as there is some good cheato, the usual algae shouldn't overwhelm. But I would think there would be some usual algae, its not really a big deal though down in the sump.

Pretty much this.

And besides, it's far easier to shut off the flow to the sump, drain it and clean it every few months than removing film algae and GHA from all over the display tank.

 

[Kial]

Yeah thats true. I'll have a look around for a cheap grow light and some cheato! Will the money spending on this hobby ever stop

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Does it ever stop? No.. But does it get to a point where it can be self sustaining with selling coral frags? Quite possible.