How much livestock to add?

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Ok opening this thread coz I'm sure I've seen this statement very often being made to guys here (DONT add too much livestock all at once to a system) Now is there a formula that one uses to see how much of livestock one should add into a system and in what space of time? We are told 1 or 2 fish at a time every 2 or 3 weeks coz the bioload has to catch up! Who knows what the bioload is at the time of putting the fish in? Also livestock means any livestock - this means corals, liverock, livesand and is there diffrent time periods for the different livestock and depending on the amount of each different livestock? ?The short and sweet is - how do you work out how much of livestock your system can handle at any given time considering - water volume,space,tank size, sizes of livestock? Dont get me wrong everyone - I'm not bucking the system but I'd like clarification as to how one works out how much livestock to add for mine benefit and all on the forum;)
 
Kind of fish Inches / gallon cm / liter
Coldwater 1" / gallon 2.5cm / 4.55 liters
Tropical 1" / 0.5 gallon 2.5cm / 2.25 liters
Marine (reef) 1" / 4 gallon 2.5cm / 18 liters
Marine (Fish-only) 1" / 2 gallons 5cm / 9 liters

i would not add more than one or 2 fish every 2 weeks they say that is safe but if it is up to me i never added more than 1 fish every other month i kept a seprate tank for new fish and kep them in there for 2 to 3 weeks at a time before adding them but thatis only me and it worked for me though
 
The advantages of the fish inches per gallon rule are that it is easy to understand, since most people know their tank’s volume, and it takes into account the total volume of the tank. “The solution to pollution is dilution” is an old fishkeeping phrase. Bigger volumes of water can obviously carry more fish waste such as nitrate before there’s a problem.
The disadvantage of the rule is it does not take into account the tank shape. A tall, thin tank of 40-gallons will, according to this rule, have the same carrying capacity as a shallower, longer tank. But in reality the shallow tank will offer a much bigger surface area for gas exchange. In filter-less tanks particularly, it makes a big difference.
Fish length per unit of surface area

This rule puts aquarium surface area to the fore:
  1. Calculate the surface area of the tank in square inches or centimeters
  2. Work out the length of your chosen fish from nose to base of the tail
 
Kind of fish Inches / gallon cm / liter
Coldwater 1" / gallon 2.5cm / 4.55 liters
Tropical 1" / 0.5 gallon 2.5cm / 2.25 liters
Marine (reef) 1" / 4 gallon 2.5cm / 18 liters
Marine (Fish-only) 1" / 2 gallons 5cm / 9 liters

i would not add more than one or 2 fish every 2 weeks they say that is safe but if it is up to me i never added more than 1 fish every other month i kept a seprate tank for new fish and kep them in there for 2 to 3 weeks at a time before adding them but thatis only me and it worked for me though

Thanx Nakoma that brings me to another point about keeping fish in holding tanks - while we "holding" our fish whats going on with that tanks water parameters? Also how does does one maintain a holding tank coz if you look at my situation I live in a place where we have no access to livestock - so I have my fish bought or caught like once a month when I can steal a "holiday" - Now here comes the difficult part - what do I do when I got access to fishes that I'd like to keep but cant take them coz what to do with them while the bioload is catching up?
 
If your bioload is catching up like mine did(1.2m), rather keep fish that you really happy with, rather than stocking fish that is a ``norm`` in marine tanks.The advice you received is correct just remember also the more water volume the better.I`m planning a biggger sump to increase water, this way I can add a few more fish.....before I go bigger.
 
there is that inch per gallon rule but i find that a bit picky at times, does that mean we must measure everythin before putting things in? bit tiresome if that. i go with a more kind of gut feeling thing which i'm not saying is the perfect way, but what i found is how much my tank can have in the end, then when ever i am buyin fish i reason whether or not its a big jump in terms of how much the tank can handle. bigger tanks can handle bigger jumps. i'd say goin with the full system volume you could estimate but never goin over what your display has space for
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there is that inch per gallon rule but i find that a bit picky at times, does that mean we must measure everythin before putting things in? bit tiresome if that. i go with a more kind of gut feeling thing which i'm not saying is the perfect way, but what i found is how much my tank can have in the end, then when ever i am buyin fish i reason whether or not its a big jump in terms of how much the tank can handle. bigger tanks can handle bigger jumps. i'd say goin with the full system volume you could estimate but never goin over what your display has space for
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agreed with scuba, the other problem i have with that formula is it doesnt take into account different types of fish produce different amounts of waste etc. bit it is a rule of thumb that can be used quite accurately
 
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