How do I compare fish with corals on the bioload?

[adonis311]

I've started experimenting with corals. How do I measure the balance of corals and fish to avoid overstocking my tank and doing twice a week water changes? Is there a formula I should know? (Like the formula that there should be 10 gallons to every inch of fish in the tank)
Tank specs below:
75 gal saltwater
Filtration: 2x Emporer biowheel filter, reef octopus 800 p. skimmer
Nitrates: 0.0
Ammonia: 0.0
Nitrites: 0.0
PH 8.4
Salinity 1.022
(tested yesterday)
KH=10
Reef specific tests are all normal.
106lbs of live rock, plus 2 inches of live sand.
Lighting is a coralife beast that cost me $800 but i cant remember the name
tank is 2 months old.
Tankmates:
Aurora Goby
Lyretail chromis
Blue-green Chromis
Royal Gramma
Sixline Wrasse
Short spine sea urchin, the usual host of crabs and snails in a reef tank, some tiny starfish, and a few patches of button polyps and a brain coral.

 

[eric b 125]

that formula doesn't really work because of the different dimensions of tanks. that stock list looks fine for a 75. when it comes to corals, though it's a bit trickier than over stocking. different species of coral need certain amounts of space because of their defense mechanisms. some corals have sweeper tentacles, some corals secrete noxious slime, etc. corals are different from fish in that they never stop growing if the conditions are right. you could buy one mushroom polyp and eventually you're entire tank could be taken over by them.
depending on what types of coral you are interested in, once the colonies get large enough you may need to add supplements to the water (like calcium and alkalinity for sps corals).
if you are just getting your feet wet with corals, i would suggest that you dont concern yourself with all the chemistry of it yet. assuming the light you have is good enough, just keeping up with water changes should be sufficient for now. stay away from some of the harder to keep corals so you dont get disparaged.
what are some of the corals that have caught your interest?

 

[eric b 125]

also, for what its worth, i personally try to stay away from keeping too many hermits in my tank because they tend to kill snails for their shells. in my opinion, snails are more beneficial to a reef. i do, however, have something like 3 hermits in my 125. three hermits cant do too much damage to my snail population.

 

[adonis311]

RIght now I have some Zoos and a rock of Button polyps. Something easy and they seem to be doing just fine. Anything else and I am open for any suggestions because I literally know nothing of them except the care methods. What kind of snails should I invest in? How many for my tank would be good? Also, would it be safe to add about 4 more blue-green chromis's?

 

[natesreef1997]

I believe you should be okay with 4 new chromis. As for snails i would say get 2 fighting conch 50 trochus and 50 cerith. id look into ordering online because you get much better prices. some places online sell ceriths for 15 cents each where at a LFS they might be 2 dollars each.

 

[adonis311]

Thanks. If I can manage it, I will be getting rid of the lyretail chromis as he's a black fish against a black background. That's IF I can catch him without turning over every rock. Man that's a lot of snails. Why so many?