What to put in tank

[yote]

Once your new tank has cycled,I think you'll be OK to move every thing over to the 90.Just make sure to rinse the rock off good in salt water to remove any trapped detritus.
Of course you'll need to keep an eye on the parameters,but usually you can transfer established rock and fish without any problems as long as your carefull.

 

[Sunshine]

That's great to hear. I was going to put some of my old sand in the refugium to make it deeper. Or can you go overboard on the sand ? It's 4 inches now.

 

[JAG107]

I have 6-7 inches of sand. You either want 4+ or 1/2" (or less), in between isn't so beneficial. 4" (more preferably) would help you establish a nice deep sand bed to help reduce nitrates.

 

[JAG107]

Oh yeah, those choc chip stars are near impossible to keep. As far as I know, their natural diet is unknown. The LFS will tell you they're part of your "clean-up crew". They might also tell you 1 snail per gallon for clean up crew. Yote's advice is FAR better, unless you like seeing lots of dead snails. When they run out of algae to eat, they die. Then the algae comes back. Then what? You go back to the fish store to buy more snails! lol
How's your mandarin doing? Is it eating frozen mysis? How long have you had it?

 

[Sunshine]

Thanks, I'll add more sand. Well, I know my Starfish's diet included turbo snails... He just covered them with his body. It was nasty. I don't know how many snails to put in there. I actually don't know how many snails I have left either. Guess I'll find out when I transfer them.
My Mandarin is doing good. I'm not sure what he eats. I feed different foods. I've had him about a year now. He is so cute. I will buy the frozen food now. I'm sure they will like that better than flakes and pellets.

 

[Sunshine]

The general rule of thumb is 1 to 2 fish every 3 or 4 weeks.That gives the bacteria time to catch up with the bio-load before adding more.
As soon as the cycles done,you can start adding your clean up crew.I like to start with 4 or 5 snails as I see algae starting to grow.Of course you can add hermits along with the snails.You want just enough to keep up with the algae growth.Too few and they cant keep up,too many and some starve to death.

I'll see how many snails I have left. I'll do the 4-5 and see how it goes. I'm pretty sure I don't have that many in there now. I did have quite a few crabs, I only see a couple in there now.

 

[Bifferwine]

Generally, the more similar two fish look, the more likely they'll fight. Not necessarily color, but more importantly, body shape. So two yellow fish will usually get along. But two similarly shaped tangs may not.

You definitely don't need any fish to cycle a tank. And I also second the opinion to ditch the flake and pellet foods and switch to frozen only.

 

[Sunshine]

OK, Thanks. I'll keep that in mind when I start adding new fish. Yeah, I'm going to get some frozen food. I'll alternate it with the other till the flakes and pellets are gone.

Thanks everyone for all the good info. You've been a great help !!!!

 

[tankedchemist]

Yes, if you have ANY plans on having any fleshy corals, I'd avoid the pygmy angels altogether. Take it from me, I have a demon bicolor angel that I am having extreme difficulty removing without completely taking the tank down. They are very shy and in my case, nip at a lot of expensive stuff!

Just curious-- what kinda stuff counts as a "fleshy coral"?

 

[yote]

Just curious-- what kinda stuff counts as a "fleshy coral"?

Softies.Stuff like zoanthids,leathers,xenia.Then the LPS like frogspawn,torches,brains.