Howdy, and welcome to fishlore! I have a hex tank as well. The surface of the water is where gas exchange takes place. Since the surface area of a hex tank is smaller than that of the same gal./rect. shaped tank, the
bio-load must also be smaller. When I was reading up on all of this stuff, I learned that the surface area of a 20 gal. hex is roughly equal to that of a 10 gal. rectangular tank (so about 1/2). So, for a 27 gal hex, you could have about 13 in. of fish (if you're going by the inch/gal. ratio). Now, there are ways to slightly increase your gas exchange, thereby increasing how many in. of fish you can have. If you have bubblers of some sort, it aggitates the surface of the water, increasing gas exchange. I have 3 types of bubblers in my tank. So you can get by with maybe a few more in. than 13...just use your good judgement.