Is 60 fishes too much for 470g?

[Planoi]

A member on my board has a tank that measures 84" x 36" x 36" which is approx. 470g. He was wondering if the tank is overloaded:

The tank is housing a few corals and about 60 fishes. A few are big fish, couple of tangs, 2 - 3 angels. The rest are small fish (Anthias, Banggais, etc..)

Since my is only a 180g, I don't really know if he is overloading. What do you think?

[KASESQ]

Especially given the adult sizes of the tangs and angels.I have seen FW tanks with that many fish, but we're talkin neon tetras here.How long has it been loaded like that?The biomass of the larger fish is much greater as far as impact on the water quality is concerned-I would either have a few big fish (tangs and angels only) or a whole bunch of small fish (a school of anthias).

[Clyde]

how is his test results ? zero across theboard ?

skimmer working good, lights and all.. hmm 500 gallon tank and 60 fishes, hmm I personally think its a bunch

but they say 10 fish in a 180 is just fine.

i would aim for about 30 fish in a 500g not more.

this is a personal view, but seriously 60 might be too much

45 would be the ceiling for me.

but what kind of fish, 20 Chromis, 4 tangs ???

[Planoi]

Here is the picture of the tank that he sent to me. From what I can see there are:

3 Blue Tang
1 Yellow Tang
2 Angels
and a whole bunch of smaller fishes

But he claims that there are about 60 fishes in there.
http://thaireef.com/images/tank/leon_tank.jpg

[KASESQ]

I would be concerned about the larger fish as they will get much larger than in the photo. Again, I would remove some fish-there is no magic formula for this sort of thing but the more room for fish, especially saltwater fish, the better-and tangs and angels like LOTS of room without competition for territory. Even if he pulled out all the little guys the tangs and angels will start fighting for turf, eventually.

[64Ivy]

I have a full blown reef of exactly those dimensions (Plus approx 75g sump) and I "only" house about 30 fish. About half of those are anthias, six are green chromis and the rest are various wrasses, a psuedochromis,a banggai, a flame hawk, and FIVE
tangs. So far, no problems but I don't think I'll be
adding any more fish as the tangs definately need ample room to swim. The anthias alone provide more than enough movement in a tank even of this size.

[Joez]

Sounds like a lot, but it looks very good.

I agree that it's too much, and I think it is better to conside the adult size and not just the current size.

I would imagine aggression would be a problem. I wonder if there is additional filtration.

Thanks.

[smokinreefer]

i think his tank looks awesome! :) it really doesnt look crowded at all. i think as long as everyone is comfortable, and the tank can handle the bioload(including maintenance, water changes etc) then there is no problem.

it'll probably be easier to advise him if he could tell us what fish he has, at least the larger species. so we can take into account their potential adult size and bioload on the system.

HTH, atleast a little.

btw the rockwork is cool, should provide good territorial boundaries.