"Maddie" wrote in message
.. .
Hi,

I'm in the process of downgrading to a fish only tank from a reef tank
with live rock for various reasons. My questions:

1 - Can I keep a cleaner shrimp in a FO tank given that I won't be using
RO water anymore and my water quality may not be quite as high as it was
in my reef tank?

As far as the fish are concerned always try to keep the water quality as
high as possible. The cleaner shrimp should be okay but make sure you
still have a good refdgium and skimmer yet.


2 - What are suitable tankmates for my 3 inch percula clown in my
30-gallon?

Wow clowns go well with about 90% of other salt water fish. Get a good
compatibility chart and browse through the 100's of options you have.


3 - How many fish can I keep in a 30-gallon? I seem to remember a certain
# of inches of fish/gallon.

This is an area you will get 20 answers on. Some look at surface area
others look at gallons. Then you have added benifits like a good refudium
and skimmer that can increase the calabilities. The old rull of thumb I
liked to use was to take the adult lenght of the fish and then cube it.
This gives you the surface area you need for that fish. So if you have a 4"
clown it would need 64 square inches of surface area. A 30 gallon long tank
has 432 square inches of surface area so you could have about 6 fish that
size in the tank. But just going to a 5" fish changes the numbers drasticly
to only 3 fish.

Dennis


Thanks.

Maddie