We have an established (2yrs) 130g when we got a MG he was large and healthy. He did not survive, made it about 3 months :sad:. Even if you set up a refugium and get copepods established it is still tricky to get the food to the MG. Good Luck, I hope yours makes it!

sand seems to help with copepod populations I've seen. Bare bottom tanks don't seem to have as many copepods as most sand bottomed tanks, I've observed.

Guess that would explain why he spends a lot of time pecking at the sand bed in my tank.