Need some help

[dcel22]

Ok next wednesday I will be starting the cycling of my tank.
I plan on putting 2 bags of southdown in my 20 gallon and 30 lbs of live rock. I will be away from the tank for 2 weeks so I will just cycle with LR.
1) Is there anything that could go wrong while I am gone?
2) Would adding some coctail shrimp help speed the process up a lot? (how much and how often?)
I plan on having 2 false percs, 10 crabs and a seastar for now. After reading another post about starfish it seems that my tank might not be ready for a starfish until about 6 months.
3) Is this true or could I add a starfish early in the tank life?
4) What order should I add all of my little critters?
Also if I were to add say 2 domino damsels during the cycling period do you think they would be ok for 2 weeks while I am gone at school (while my mom is feeding them and not requiring her to do much work like water changes and such).
5) If you have any suggestions please let me know, I just want to do the best that I can and don't want to mess up or lose any money in the process.

 

[sanangelofish2]

If the LR is already cured you will be fine with the two damsels (just tell your mom not to feed much) Make sure you start off very slow with the fish and other critters dontr for get your clean up crew that should be your first addtions

 

[finland]

1) If you have just southdown and LR in the tank, and some one is there to top off for evaporation, then I don't see a problem.
2) I don't know if adding a shrimp will speed up the process, but it will give it a harder cycle. This is a good thing
3)I would definately wait a while for the tank to mature before adding a starfish.
4) After the cycle and ammonia and nitrites are at 0, wait a week and add the crabs(I assume you mean hermit crabs) if you are getting some algae growing. There has to be something in there for them to eat. IMO snails might be a better choice for a cleanup crew. I have had better luck with snails. Then go with the clowns.
5) IMO I would forget using dominoes to cycle the tank. Using LR and dead shrimp will cycle the tank just fine and would not be stressing out any fish.
6) Only advice I can give is to have a lot of patience. Go slow. Also, do as much research as you can before adding anything. You don't want to buy something just to find out after the fact, that you shouldn't have.