Questions about Crabs, Snails and Shrimp numbers ????

[itisjp]

I have a 55 gal. tank with a Amiracle SL-50 Sump (3-4 gal), protein skmmer, 2 to 3 powerheads. I am planning on setting the tank up as a reef tank. I have read that you can only have one inch of fish per 5 gallons. Now I want to add crabs, shrimp and snails. Is there any rules to follow as to how many you can add? For example if I have my max of 11 inches of fish; will it affect the number of crabs, shrimp and snails I can add?
Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Jp

[MikeS]

anything living will put bioload on your system. Corals are not toohard on your bioload, as they do not produce nearly the amount of waste that a fish does. Inverts like snails and shrimp produce more, but in a way their waste removal kinda equals this out (to a point).

The "inches per gallon" rule is pretty subjective. The biological process that takes place in your tank is very dynamic. Many factors affect the balance. A well established tank with an efficient biological filter capacity can handle a much greater bioload than a newer, poorly maintained tank with weaker biological processing ability.

So to answer your question (sort of :D )...yes, the amount of inverts and coral can have an impact on how many fish you can keep, to what degree depends alot on how many inverts you have, how strong your biological filter is, and what kind of fish you are adding....there are really no hard and fast, set in stone rules....

Mike

[boxercrab]

for a 55gallon 5 nassiarus snails 20 turbo astreas 40-45 small hermit crabs and various other animals if neededis the staple of a reef aquarium for a 55 . 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

[miztahphong2]

for my 50 i have 15 blue legged hermits, 10 scarlet reef hermits, and 20 turbos

[tepelus]

I've lost track of how many snails and hermits i have in mine. But your post reminds me of the time when i was working in a pet shop (a chain i won't mention the name but where the associates know more than the managers) and some lady asked me about starting a saltwater tank for her son. She wanted a 'Nemo" fish and several other fish and an anemone and I was going on telling her this and that and told her the general rule is about 1 inch of fish per five gallons for salties. Well, she didn't like my answers so grabbed a book off the shelf, skimmed through it quickly and went to my manager and had her tell her about salties, which she didn't know hardly anything about salties at all. My manager then informed me that this woman said I was being rude and misleading cause I told her all these basic rules for salties and what I had said was slightly off from the book she just skimmed through. So, needless to say, it didn't make my day. You try to be helpful but with some people, if you don't tell them what they want to hear, they assume you're lieng to them. :roll:

[jman785]

The more water volume you have, the higher your bioload can be...

So basically if you have a 55-gallon tank, and say a 30-gallon sump, then you have 85 gallons of water ;-)

Keep this in mind also.