Cycling question and Stocking advice?

[RyanMcLaughlin]

I finished aquascaping my tank today with about 140lbs of live rock. I have a really thick sandbed like 5 inches. All of it is fully alive and the rock is cured. The tank is 100 gallons. I havent tested the water yet but the salinity is fine. I have all my equipment except lighting. There are two hermit crabs so far that have emerged from the rock so far. They seem to be doing fine but they have only been in there for a day. My question is how long do you think it will take to cycle. I know it can take anywhere from 1 to 6 weeks. Also how would I go about stocking it. I wanted to get like schools of fish like clowns for example. Ive read that if you want to do that you have to add them at the same time but I dont want to overload the filter and have them die. What should I do? Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Ryan

[tmz]

I'd wait the full six weeks before doing the fish but I'm not starting my first tank so it may be easier for me to be patient. Let that rock and sand work in your tank for a while would be my advice.

I don't think schools of clownfish will work. Theywill likely become aggressive to each other at some point in time. Go slow with fish additions. Take the intervening time to study the speimens you wan't . Make a list doublecheck campatibility issues and when you think you've got it right run it by folks on RC.Most of the folks who anser posts are knowledgeable and concientious and will try to give you the best advice . Some unfortunately are abrasive and worse still some just give uniformed opinion as if it were fact. You need to develop your own knowledge base to be able to tell the difference.

[RyanMcLaughlin]

Here is a list of what I am going for as of now. I might want to add some Chromis and maybe some more crabs or shrimp. But these are defintely ones I want to get. I know the clams wont be a reality for a long time but I cant wait. I am running dual 250 watt MHs and a pair of flourescent w/ actnics.
4 Ocellaris Clownfish
2 Bangaii Cardinal Fish
1 Longnose Hawkfish
1 Scooter Blenny
1 Blue Hippo Tang
1 Sailfin Tang (Maybe)
1 Harlequin or Tobacco Basslet
1 Coral Banded Shrimp or some Cleaner Shrimp
1 Arrow Crab
1 Starfish of some sort
A few maxima Clams
5 Dwarf Blue Leg Hermit Crabs
Some Feather Dusters
And some other corals

[tmz]

Looks like a good list. Just a couple of comments.

The arrow crab can grow to about 6 inches and will attack shrimp including the coral banded. it will also eat all of the polycheate annelid worm population in your rock. These worms are good scavengers and your tank needs them.

If you get a pair of Bangais and you are lucky enough to get a male and a female you're golden. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to tell the sex with cetainty. Two of the same sex will likely reslut in one being killed.

Four ocellaris in the same tank may be ok epending on sex. If I were going to try more than two per tank it would be Ocellaris since they are proably the least aggressive and I would purchase small ones(pre sex) juvemiles so they could pair off and establish dominance in relationships. If you get a bunch of dominant females there will be a real problem.

[RyanMcLaughlin]

Thats what I had planned for the clownfish. I will hope for the best with the Bangaii and see how it goes. As far as the arrow crab, are the worms your talking about the little white worms all over the rock? I have loads of those. Anyways, Is there something else I could get that would do what they do so I could have him because they are one of my favorite invertabrates.

[bertoni]

This thread covers tangs:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=739380

I wouldn't put two in that size tank, and the sailfin gets too large.

The ocellaris will form pairs, if they're juveniles. I'm not sure that the tank is large enough to keep the pairs from fighting, but they might. Personally, I'd just add two juveniles and not add any more clownfish.

The harlequin might eat the clownfish, and it likely will go after shrimp. The tobacco is larger and more aggressive.

Scott Michael's book "Reef Fishes" is a good investment, in my opinion.

[RyanMcLaughlin]

Like the list said, it was a maybe. I defintely want the blue one though it is so cool looking. I will try the four clowns and see what happens. If they fight then I can donate them back to the fish store. I will look into the book. I havent gotten a book about fish specifically yet just setting up the aquarium.
Thank you,
Ryan

[RyanMcLaughlin]

Also when feeding tangs, I have heard that it is good to grow algae on pieces of rock so they can graze all day. Is that a good idea?

[Neptune420]

You can cultivate macro algae fairly easily in a separate tank or sump. Live algae is just a supplemental food though. You will want to feed a mixture of dried algae, spirulina, live algae and maybe some flakes my purple tang devours the gracilaria algae. Check out ipsf.com or inlandaquatics.com for some good live cultures.

[tmz]

I agree with the post by bertoni, Sorry I missed the Harlequin and Tobbaco issue. It was late. I strongly second the Scott Michael's book.

The white worms you are reffering to are probably small feather dusters not likely prey for the Arrowcrab. The Coral bnaded shrimp also eats polycheate worms. So having these two will likely severely deplete or erradicate the polycheates which is not a good thing.

My tangs(six) love a clip of dried seaweed which I feed daily. They also get some spirulina flake,Prime reef flake, blood worms,mysis shrimp ,brine shrimp,cyclopeeze and a bit of minced krill.I have a Blue/Regal/Hippo(paracanthurus hepatus) that started in my tank as a half dollar sized fish. Five years later, it is now six inches, fat and colorfull.