Honest opinions on stocking

[Gobi-Wan]

Hi all. I have had my reef aquarium up for a year now. All my inhabitants just survived 2 months of me being out of town for a medical procedure, under my wife's and father's care. Right now I have 2 firefish, 3 carberryi anthias all about 2.5", 2 oscellaris clowns about 2", and a diamond goby about 4". I also have a couple BTAs and a large longspine urchin. Traditional methods of limiting stocking seem silly to me. Since I have a lot of smaller fish, I'm probably close to my maximum number of inches they say is acceptable, but that metric has always seemed silly to me. Wouldn't waste production have a lot more to do with the total body mass of the creatures you have rather than simply inches?
Anyway I wondered what peoples opinions were on how much more room i have to work with. I am pretty determined to get a kole tang and I might like a dwarf angel of some kind, however there are other fish i like as well so I'm trying to come up with some choices to think about for the future.

I have a 75g display, 20g sump and 10g refugium and about 80# rock and plan to add a little more.

 

[GThompson]

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[GThompson]

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[GThompson]

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[GThompson]

Do you have a skimmer? That will help support more fish. I have 12 fish , 2 Feather dusters, 3 cleaner shrimp, 4 coral frags and asst snails and hermits in a 55 g. I have a lot of water turnover also. 1cannister filter , 2 hob filters and 2 wavemakers running

 

[pcon]

I think the fish population is predominantly limited by the maintenance and system design more than any simple metric. Some 29gal displays are maxed out at 2 clowns given the equipment, maintenance schedule and owner goals. My friend has near 20fish in his 29 and it is packed to the gills with corals, and is undeniably thriving for the last two years. Because he is absolutely on top of equipment and maintenance.

 

[Maacc]

Just be careful with the kole, they can turn nasty with age especially in a small display. I agree on the stocking, provided you have the equipment and you keep an eye on things, I have 35 fish, quite a few very large with no issues.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

There are no formulas regarding g saltwater stocking.

If you are able to keep nitrates and phosphates under control and if your fish can coexist you are not overstocked.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

Thanks for the replies, that makes me feel a little bit more free. I do have a skimmer. I traded all my corals in before I left for 2 months but I plan to repopulate.