Replacing all my dead fish - A new start!!

[ovrmyhdagn]

Well, I lost all my fish last month. A combination of small problems snowballed into one large die off.

My set-up:

75 gallon non-RR
3-4 inch sandbed
125-150 lbs of LR
29 gallon sump with refuge (with deep sandbed of 6-7 inches and LR rubble, soon to add chaeto or other macroalgea)
Aqua C EV180 skimmer with mag 7
Mag 9.5 return
CPR overflow with aqualifter
Tsunami wavemaker with maxijet 1200's
I currently have 260 watt PCs with 2 10k and 2 actinic ( i know that I will need an upgrade for a reef)

The sand and LR came from a 6+year old tank.

1 sixline wrasse
between 50-75 mushrooms

Water chem is all good with a 7.9ph and SG at 1.023 trying to raise to 1.025 in anticipation of going coral.

What fish would you suggest to go in this tank? I would like smaller fish that are colorful.

My thoughts:

Tomini Tang
lawn mower blennie
pair of pygmy angels (if possible)
Small school of anthias?

Other ideas? I am open to anything as long as it is a non-aggressive tank.

[PatMayo]

Sounds fine to me. I would take my time though. I would be interested in knowing what killed off your other tank? Did you learn some valuable lessons. It must have been some real bad issues to have killed all your fish. The SG should actually be about 1.026. You can learn more about it from these articles. Good luck.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=239848

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

Regards,

Pat

[ovrmyhdagn]

It appears to be a low oxygenation level as all my parameters were checked once or twice a week. There was a long discussion on the board to come to some sort of conclusion.

No protein skimmer for aeration and an overstocked tank due to a leaking 200 gallon tank that came with 9 fish added to my 5 fish in a 75 that was supposed to be a short term solution. A drop in SG from a bad water change may have sickened the fish killing 4 while on vacation, then the other died of over the next couple of days.

WHile you seem somewhat contrite in your response, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and I have definately learned a lesson and am intending on taking my time. I have had one fish for almost a month while I made the necessary improvements to add fish and maybe corals to my tank including increased filtration, a sump/fuge, and increasing circulation.

Now, what do you think of my fish list?

[ChunksInClemson]

I dont think you HAVE to change lights if you want a reef. I have that same wattage on my 90g and everything seems to thrive even though they are all softies! You can even keep some LPS, just have to be placed near the top.

[ovrmyhdagn]

Chunks,

Thanks for the advice. I thought for sure that I would have to get new lighting and would prefer not to. Would you be willing to list the corals that you have under the similar lighting?