What to stock

[Lance]

Take your time and add slowly. Adding livestock too quickly will only cause you grief. Like Michika says, start with the CU crew, and add the smaller and more timid fish before the more aggressive ones.

[Drock169]

Like everyone says finish cycling, then gradually add your clean up crew (CUC). I like to add corals and inverts next, then fish last. When adding fish like lance said, least aggressive to most aggressive, and generally adding them slowly like a few small ones or one large one every other week so your system can adjust. The exception is with tangs in which its best to add them at the same time if your going to mix species.

do I add the whole clean up crew at once? or a little at a time? I think I will be needing a big crew for a tank this size.

[michika]

You can add it all at once if you are confident your parameters are in check, speaking of, what are yours? Adding them all at once may be cheaper since you live out of the city, but you need ot make sure that the water quality is perfect. Right now you'll probably just want a small clean up crew, something to get things going, snails, hermits (some people say yes, some say no), shrimp, etc.

The 230 gallon display is not set up yet. I am currently cooking about 400-500 lbs of rock in the garage and it will be around another 4 weeks till its done..

I have a 50 gallon set up now as a qt.

Can I add all the clean up crew once I have the main tank going? Is it ok to just drop in 200-300 crabs and snails all at once? or do I want to qt them first?

And if I need to qt my fish and corals for three weeks should I add them to the qt soon? So they will be ready for the display tank?

[michika]

Since you 230g is set up yet, you have to wait to ensure there is no cycle, or that any cycles you have are finished.

You don't have to QT your clean up crew, you run a risk of them starving if you do in some cases.

Wait on the fish until you are sure your clean up crew is doing okay in your display.

Thanks for the advise! seems like there is still so much left to learn.

[VFX]

With CUC, I find that I always need less than the 'recommended' amount.

For example:

J&L suggest this package for 180-240 gallon reefs.

150 - Blue Legged Hermits
30 - Red Scarlet Hermit
50 - Astrea Snails
50 - Margarita Snails
50 - Cerith Snails

I'd maybe add 1/2 or 2/3 that amount at first. In that way, if there's not enough detritus/algae etc. to sustain 300+ newly added inverts, you wont starve anyone.

You can always add more later if you find you need them.

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