Finally, life is good...

[rossb]

So I buy this 180 gallon tank add sand and let it run for two weeks in fresh water to make sure everything is ok (doing 2 complete water changes), then I add salt. I ask for advise on cycling a tank ...which fish...and the advise I get is use live rock/sand. So I buy 25 pounds of live sand, and 40 pounds of live rock and add it to the tank and wait for 6 more weeks (longer for the refugium) and do bi-weekly tests. The tank goes through the ammonium cycle, the nitrite cycle, and the nitrate cycle (mostly...it is now stable). Then I ask for opinions on first fish. (here and on other forums).

Well I get this mixed message. Firstly to calculate the tank loading It is 3“ of fish per SF surface area, but no more than 25% of that while cycling a tank. Also in damsel population add 1, 3, or 5 or more and not even amounts (this from more than 1 source) and also to add all of 1 species at a time. So I take my girl to the per store and we pick out 5 damsel fish and 2 chromis (all very small < 3/4")… from the same tank and a new shipment. Given that I have 180 gallons in the main tank, 33 in the refugium a 40 gallon sump and I am skimming, that seems like a very reasonable amount of fish to start doesn’t it?