I would suggest you get all your rock before you decide to add livestock. You will usually cause anything from a very very minor mini cycle to a full blown cycle when you add a new piece depending on how much die off you get aka how cured it is.

Good advice, thanks. My understanding (and please correct if I'm wrong) Is to to first get all the live rock in and cycled, then inverts and finally fish?

What about the so called "clean up crew" How soon and what? Is it best to be selective on these additions and try to target persistent troubles (ie. algae blooms)?

Also I'm looking at a sand bed in my fuge, will the live rock help seed fresh sand or should I be looking at picking up some used sand or the commercially available products like "reef mud" and how soon should this go in?. My understanding is for a properly operating sand be you need a wide diversity of species and to be carefull not to add something that will wipe out too much of the beneficial ones.


SO MUCH TO LEARN! Looking forward to any and all words of wisdom.

Francis