Questions for a bigger tank...

[islandcreation]

I just got done seeing my Doctors tank and noticed alot of fish. He has a 75 gallon tank with about 100 pounds of live rocks. No cleanup crew at all. Here are the questions...

1. I saw some where there was a rule of thumb... Inches of a fish equaled to so many gallon?

2. With no clean up crew does it make a diffrence?

3. Water change 10% every two weeks? Or more....

4. He only has only I think two pc bulbs at 96watt a piece and one T-7. What is he limited too... He told me he had clams in the pass and they died... Probably due to not having a halide...

Next time I see him I want to give him accurte tips along with helping out my 66 gallon tank.

 

[skipm]

1. The rule of thumb you mention doesn't really work, think of it like this you can have 2 fish that are each 3 inches long and one of them be long and thin and the other being much rounder. Its obvious that the second fish will weigh alot more and will produce more waste than the long thin fish. I think you can see the reason this rule of thumb doesn't work.
2. Not having cleaners is dependant on the fish being kept, for example if you keep fish like triggers they will eat any snails or crabs. If you are asking about being able to keep more fish because of less bioload then that doesn't necessarily work either because cleaners don't contribute much to the bioload.
3. You can do 10% every 2 weeks or 20% monthly, more often or greater amounts as necessary to maintain good water quality.
4. With the depth of a 75 and the lighting currently on the tank he should stick to low light corals like softies and mushrooms. He can keep some LPS corals in the low light variety.