Which Comes First.....Fish or Coral

[BF90GREEF]

I am new to the hobby and have a lot of questions. I am in the process of setting up a 90 Gallon (48x24x18) mixed reef tank. I put in about 1 1/2" of substrate (CARIBSEA ARAGAMAX OOLITIC SELECT SAND), 90 lbs of BRS Dry live rock, and 25 lbs of live rock that I bought from a local guy. Much to my surprise, after two weeks, the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates were all at 0.

I have a couple questions:

1) not sure if I brought anything into the tank with the live rock I bought from the local guy. Should I treat the tank now before I put anything in it as a precautionary measure?

2) I plan on putting in both coral and a few fish. Which should I put in first or can I put them in together?

3) Should I add all the fish at the same time or should I stage them in separately. I was thinking about adding them in 3 - 4 groups.

Below is the list of Fish and Corals I am planning on adding. My plan is to add the passive fish first and add the more aggressive fish later. Also, any that have a qty. of 2 will be added at the same time. Any thoughts or comments on these would be appreciated.

Fish:
Group 1:
• Harptail Blenny (Qty. 1)
• Firefish (Qty. 2)

Group 2:
• Neon Blue Goby (Qty. 2)
• Yellow Assessor (Qty. 1)

Group 3:
• Orchid Dottyback (Qty. 2)
• Banggai cardinalfish (Qty. 1)

Group 4:
• Ocellaris clownfish (Qty. 2)
• Yellow stripe Maroon Clownfish (Qty. 1)

Group 5:
• Powder Blue Tang (1) (9") (Herbivore) - $69.99


Clean Up Crew:
• Peppermint Shrimp (Qty. 4)
• Electric Blue Hermit Crab (Qty. 5)
• Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab (Qty. 10)
• Astraea Turbo Snails (Qty. 5)
• Nassarius Snails (Qty. 5)
• Cerith Snails (Qty. 5)
• Emerald Crab (Qty. 1)

Corals:

• Soft Corals
○ Colony Polyp, Eagle Eye
§ Semi-Aggressive
§ Medium water flow, moderate lighting
○ Kenya tree coral
§ Semi-Aggressive
§ Medium to Strong water flow, moderate to high lighting
○ Pom Pom Xenia Coral
§ Peaceful
§ Medium to Strong water flow, low to moderate lighting
• SPS Corals
○ Mind Trick Montipora Coral
§ Peaceful
§ Medium water flow, moderate lighting
○ Periwinkle Plating Montipora Coral
§ Peaceful
§ Medium water flow, moderate lighting
• LPS Corals
○ Cynarina (Button Coral) Peaceful (Bottom to middle)
§ Low water flow, moderate lighting
○ Turbinaria peltata (Pagoda Cup coral) Peaceful (Bottom)
§ Medium water flow, moderate lighting
○ Candy cane - Peaceful
§ Medium water flow, moderate lighting
○ Plate coral, pinwheel - Semi-peaceful
§ Low to medium flow, moderate lighting
○ Australian Big Polyp Blastomussa - Peaceful
§ Low water flow, moderate lighting

[heathlindner25]

3 clowns are no good, powder blues are no good. Those are the two that jumped out at me first.
Both would be Holy Terrors in your system

[NJAB]

to my understanding once you get zero on all parameters you can add corals, as when they are healthy they are not really adding any ammonia to you system (if they began to die and decompose then they start to pollute the water). Corals will however remove elements from the water as they grow but these are replaced with water changes, now i didn't see any mention of the lighting system you wish to use and that will be the most important part of coral care as all the corals i noticed you wanted are photosynthetic so a decent to good lighting system should be used if you want a good read on this I always use this article
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html
for the fish's and size of your tank i dont see a problem starting off with 3 fish if you monitor your ammonia for the first few weeks firefish can pick on each other in small groups but i've seen it done before, your dottyback might pick on the inverts, i had one and it did all the time if you want a similar more peaceful fish then a dottyback i would possible look at a member of the basslet family. Your clownfish also have the possibility of fighting as maroons are extremely territorial of other clowns, i had one as well and it would defend its territory pretty intense sometimes.

[Sk8r]

You will need calcium supplementation for the stony component of your coral list. Kalk should suffice. First stabilize the system and start with your cuc for 4 weeks breaking in the sandbed, then a couple of the fish, then the corals in whatever order is convenient. You WILL need carbon in the system because of the mixed reef, and carbon and tangs does seem (according to some) to arrive at hlle problems, qv. Whether this is true or not, the powder blue is too rowdy and nervous for a 90, and needs more swimming room. A tomini would be more to scale, but given their nature as a browser, I'd get the tank more mature before bringing in that one.

[thomas.torode]

Questions I can help you with.

2) Make sure your tank is stable with your stock amount. Ammonia could spike after adding your first fish and corals should not be in for the duration of that time.

3) I've added as much as 4 at a time and had no issues.

Your fish:
Tang Police: Don't have a powdered blue tang in a 90 gallon with that many fish.
Honestly I think peppermint shrimp are really ugly and don't do much cleaning. They also hide a lot. Skunk Cleaner Shrimp would clean more and you would see him often.
Only let 3 Clownfish in 1 tank, unless you plan on having 2 the next morning.

Lastly, Make sure you have good filtration.

[BF90GREEF]

Thanks for the feedback. As for the lighting, I have two AI Hydra TwentySix LED's. Still figuring out the proper setting for them, but I bought good lights.

Sk8r - what does the acronym "cuc" standfor?

[ssobel80]

Cuc = clean up crew

[Blue spot]

Agree with all the above, if I was you cuc and fish , get your bio load under control, add you're softies and lps , stabilise , and finish with your sps. For fun I would try to get a pair of banngais. They breed freely and if you get fry they are already formed so no complex raising. Lots of fun

[CarrieB]

Don't forget to read the stickies about quarantine procedures.

[anthonys51]

yes a tomini goes nice in a 90 high. my friend has his for about 7 years. but they need to do a lot of g razzing and like lots of holes to dart in and out of .