Initial Inhabitants??

[ROYWS3]

My brother is in the proscess of putting together a 29g reef set up. Right now he's got about 30# of live rock, 50# of Southdown that he activated with one of those live sand activator kits sold online (sorry can't remember who). It included some activated live sand "miricale mud" lots of small hermits, snails, worms, copepeds etc. All of his inverts are doing well and reproducing and this setup has been running for about a month now. What should be next. He was thinking mabey a damsel, I think I talked him out of that with my suggestion of a small "herd" of camel shrimp. Is this a good suggestion for how he should proceed?? When should he begin to add fish and corals??? He has 65w of PC lighting. What corals do you suggest?? His fish "wish" list includes a flame angel and a pair of Bangdani (sp) cardinals. Does this sound okay as well?? Any suggestions, ideas or other feedback would be greatly apperciated.
Thanks,
ROY

 

[OrionGirl]

Always add the least aggressive fish first. A damsel, if added at all, should be dead last in a reef tank--otherwise it will torture all other fish. It sounds like the tank is cycled, since inverts are thriving, so he can add the fish. The cardinals would be my first choice, then the angel. For corals, I prefer to let the tank settle in for at least 6 months first.

 

[mogurnda]

WHatever he does, he should think hard. There's room for maybe 3-4 small fish in that tank, depending on how aggressive they are, so each one has to count.
I am a big fan of small clowns, like ocellaris, percula, pinks or skunks. A pair of them would be very nice, but might tend to take over. A pair of Banggai cardinals would be very nice, but try to get captive bred animals, because they are being depleted in the wild. Inland Aquatics raises them.
I agree with Oriongirl about letting the tank settle down before adding corals. Meantime, practice keeping your calcium and alkalinity stable.

 

[ROYWS3]

Thanks to both of you for your timely responses. I fowarded this thread to my brother so he has an idea of what to pick up at the LFS this weekend. Mogurnda, I'll make sure he checks the Inland Aquatics site before he goes, but I'm pretty sure the LFS he plans on heading to in Pittsburgh has captive bred cardinals.
Thanks again,
ROY