Mandarin
 

based on experience, how many lbs of live rock can support a 2inch Mandarin?
I do a have about 80lbs with some pots that I see at night, does that mean I am ready for a Mandarin? I have googled a lot, but just want to be sure

Well it depends if you have pods in your liverock or not. Generally 70lbs of a well seeded liverok is good for one mandarin.

how do you check that?

Its also important to have an well estalished system

I have about 100lbs of live rock and lots of macro algae (chaeto, etc.) and I have pods all over the rock of all sizes, my pair of mandarins are fat, happy, and preggers. I put chaeto in my overflow, sump, and behind my rockwork and it seemed to help a lot with pods as it gives them somewhere to hide and reproduce.

You can also seed your rock if you think that there is not enough pods, I seeded my rock with a few packs of copepods that I bought from the states and now they are all over the place.