what should go first

[creo568]

hello all! im a noob in the swf hobby.i have a 46 gal tank 48lb of lr and a bag of ls in my tank.i have an ehiem pro and a protien skimmer 1 power head.have a few questions when it comes to building a reef what should go into reef tank first and what goes in after?what should i have as a clean up crew and what should my bioload be at max?

 

[aztec reef]

First you need all the liverock you can afford about 1.- 2 lbs per gallon. also sand about 4" deep. let it cycle.... then after cycle(3-6weeks later) put the cleaning crew in.
You wanna make sure you don't put animals in the tank until AMMONIA,NITRITES, are at 0 and NITRATES at the minimun..
If it was my tank i wouldn't do more than 5 small fishes. Take everything really sloooww.
also for a reef you need lots of flow think 20's . that means you need at least 20x turnover rate of water per hour.

 

[creo568]

After tank is cycled I was wondering what should go in tank first.Should i build the reef first and add the fish last before i put in hard coral if i go that route?If i build the reef first what should be the first corals and inverts to go in?Man at lfs told me cant just add anything there's an order to put things in.Does any1 know the order?

 

[barchtruong]

the order is: the hardiest and less expensive will go in first so you can get a feel how to keep the corals cuz water paremeter in any new tank is very fluctuated.
I started out with the button polyps and mushrooms, then colt tree and kenya, then leathers then stonies like candy cane, brain and frogspawn

 

[aztec reef]

Yeah i know the order.
First build reef
2.cycle it
3.add snails & hermits
4.add shrimps & crabs
5. add great lighting
6.add soft corals
All of the above have to be done slowly and kept in great water conditions after #5 you can add pretty much the whole Kaputo, The whole enchilada.

 

[creo568]

Thank you all for the help and the info