Stocking question

[Eileen]

My 46 gallon bow-front tank: plan--fish, inverts, and some easy corals

Set-up for 3 weeks with 50lbs. of live rock, a Remora C skimmer, SeaLife PC retro-fit 96watt full spectrom, 96watt blue actinic bulbs, two power heads and heater

All tests are zero and everything's been running greyt., (sorry, I'm a greyhound owner and we tend to spell "great", "greyt"

Next week I'll be adding 2 Moonlights, 40lbs. live sand and some of the snails and crabs. If all goes well in another 2 weeks I'll add the remainder of inverts--tube worms, starfish included

Now the question-- I have a plan on the fish I'll be keeping but was wondering if adding some of the corals first would be O.K. I'm thinking of mushroom corals, sea fans, and basically soft corals. What do you think?

 

[mogurnda]

Sounds like you're doing everything carefully and in the right order. I'm sure it will be great.

I vote that you wait a while on the corals. Let the tank run a few months and stabilize. There's never any harm in adding corals a few at a time slowly, whereas it would really suck if you were fighting nitrate or an algae bloom when you're fully stocked.

People are probably sick of hearing this, but I really think Eric Borneman's Aquarium Corals is a must-read for anyone who wants success with corals. About $30 online, and packed with info.