Fish stocking advice please - 125 gallon reef

[Bulldog1972]

I have a new 125 gallon reef tank that has been in place since October of last year. I've been making small additions every 2-3 weeks. I have 8 corals (4 polyps, 2 torches, 1 hammer, and 1 leather), 15 garden variety hermit crabs, 2 electric blue hermits, and 2 cleaner scarlet shrimps.

My question is with fish stocking levels. I have high end protein skimmer, sump, pumps, etc., and I have a cleaning service that comes every 3 weeks and does the water changes, etc. I want to be careful not to overload the tank, and I like to lean towards under stocking and not pushing bio load limits.

Here is what I have in so far:

1 starry blenny
1 midas blenny
2 ocelleris clowns
1 green chromis
1 sleeper gold head goby
1 red velvet fairy wrasse
2 neon blue gobys (they are tiny)

I have harmony in my tank - other than my green chromis killing the other chromis I tried to put in there, I have no issues.

Here is what I'm considering to round out my fish stocking:

3-4 lyretail anthias
1 coral beauty pygmy angel
1 kole yellow eye tang

I would add them about a month apart, starting with the anthias.

Questions:

1. If I add all these, am I at risk of being overstocked? I'll buy small specimens, but I need to plan for the fish growing.
2. Any potential problems with the fish I want to add?
3. Any other suggestions? I picked the coral beauty angel and kole tang because I like the way they look, my research tells me that the risk to my corals is lower, and they are on the smaller side.

Help is greatly appreciated.

[Buzz1329]

If all the fish currently in your tank grew to maturity, you’d have 35” of fish in your DT. That’s a bit above the 1” of fish per 5 gallons rule, assuming this general rule of thumb is still considered useful, but not a problem because none of the fish are wide in girth.

If you were to add 4 Lyretail Anthias and a Kole Tang, you would double the inches of fish when they all grow to maturity. IMO, I could still be done provided you have excellent filtration, including an efficient skimmer and a GFO/GAC reactor. But it would be pushing the limits. You may want to add the Kole Tang first to see if he added fish load creates any problems, and take it from there.

I would definitely pass on the Coral Beauty for the reasons discussed in this thread:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1857238

Good luck,

[fishysteve]

My opinion would be to slow down a bit. If you completely stock it in the first few months of having it setup, there won't be anything to look forward to "stumbling across" later down the road. Maybe it's just me, but I like to leave "room" in my tank in case I come across something unexpected at the LFS. It also keeps you from getting bored with what is in there.

And why don't you maintain it yourself!?!?!? That's like these famous singers that don't even write their own songs !!! If you are disabled I apologize.

[fishysteve]

Don't get me wrong, I love watching my fish and corals grow from small specimens. But I also like to have the option of adding something down the road.