4 week old 75g, ?'s about next step

[r's 75tank]

We've been following advice from book "The new marine aquarium" and 3 people at LFS. So far we have 80lbs of LR (fiji) aquascaped and all test show the levels are normal. The question is we just bought 80lbs of LS at LFS, we have had some peoplie tell us we should have added the sand first then lay the rock on top, were the book says to add the sand around the rock after it has cured. should I move all the rock out to put the sand in underneath? or just put the sand around the rock?
I don't have any pictures I can show yet, but tank is 4' long x 18D x 21H I believe.
What we have so far and whats planned.
75g tank
80lbs LR
80lbs LS (not in yet)
2-600 gph powerheads
Emperor 400 power filter w/carbon in baskets
Twin bulb lighting (1 full spectrum, 1 40wt blue actinic)
300wt heater
SG=1.023
PH=8.3
Planned:
Protien skimmer - Maybe for Christmas
some corals (mushrooms,leathers)
1 Hippo tang
1 Flame Angelfish
1 Jawfish
2 Bangai cardinals
5 Blue Green Chromis
2 Percula Clownfish
1 Firefish goby
Cleaner shrimp
Snails and crabs - how many?
Any comments or suggestions about our setup would be helpful.

 

[littlebuck]

One thing you might want to look at is getting a better lighting system. if you only have 80 watts on your tank that is not enough. IMO

 

[wax32]

You can put the sand in around your rocks. About half of the people do that. I agree with more lights if you want to do corals at all. That's a lot of fish too.

 

[r's 75tank]

Being that I already have a twin bulb set, would I just add more lights next to them or should I start over and buy all new stronger lights and which ones?

 

[wax32]

You can wait a while since you want to get used to the tank before you jump into corals, but I'd look into a buying a whole new setup that includes 2 - 250w metal halides, that way you can keep anything you want! (The lights aren't cheap so no rush. I went 4 months before buying something besides what came with the tank. Waiting 4 months for corals was a bummer though!

)

 

[r's 75tank]

Sounds like a good plan. Are MH lights a lot differant than compact flourecence?

 

[wax32]

Yes, like night and day!

 

[houndhome1]

Hi, one thing u may want to look into is dead rock. The rock is dead. It'smuch cheeper and works great at the bottom layer of rock, after your tank becomes established the dead rock will convert over to live rock, it's pretty cool stuff.