Fish or Corals?

[Oscar]

Well my birthday was a couple of days ago and I have some birthday money to burn. My Cad 39G parameters have stabilized, a bit of algae to deal with but the 1 urchin and 5 hermits should be able to deal with it.

The question is fish or corals, which to add first? From everything I have read I should be adding corals slowly before fish. But fish will help to add to the bio load and improve the filtration system.

The Cad 39G is a bit misleading, after discounting for the 4 sump chambers in the back the display section is actually only 27G.

It has been suggested that I might want to concentrate on SPS so I do not need to worry about sweeping tentacles.

Now my wife was quite taken by some hammer coral, which if I keep near the front of the tank would give some room for the sweepers to do their thing. (happy wife happly life)

Also the LFS has some blue green chromis. Could I add just 2 of them to start my fish stocking?

I still have lots of flexibility with this tank and am looking forward to your input.

[Oscar]

Or should I be waiting until the coraline algae develops?

My LR has a good coverage but it has not yet spread to the glass or back wall. I seem to recall someone posting that once the coraline shows up on the glass or back wall it is an indicator that your conditions are good for introducing corals.

[Todd]

Some (if not all - not too sure) urchins eat Coraline, thus you may be waiting a long time for it to develop.

Do you have the lights for SPS? I would not suggest it as a beginner coral, difficult to keep particularly with summer heat coming. Personally I would add only one chromis now (as they can get territorial as they get bigger), and the hammer. The best of both worlds - just watch your water quality, which shouldn't be a problem as it is still a low bioload.

[Oscar]

Some (if not all - not too sure) urchins eat Coraline, thus you may be waiting a long time for it to develop.

Do you have the lights for SPS? I would not suggest it as a beginner coral, difficult to keep particularly with summer heat coming. Personally I would add only one chromis now (as they can get territorial as they get bigger), and the hammer. The best of both worlds - just watch your water quality, which shouldn't be a problem as it is still a low bioload.

Yes, adding the urchin may have been premature. I will keep an eye on him, I think he has been grazing on algae so far not sure about the coraline.

Lighting includes 2 X 25W actinics and 1 X 150W hallide plus LED moonlights. So I think I can go for SPS and clams eventually.

OK so maybe I should go back to my original plan which was to slowly stock up corals before adding fish. Since I have a small tank any stingers need to be separated from the rest of the corals.

Thoughts?

[Zoaelite]

The whole "Sweeper tentacle thing" throw out the window, unless you plan on keeping Galaxy Corals, Elegance's or Tube anemones. Believe me your going to be a lot more worried about chemical warfare as compared to nemacyte fighting (Stinging cells of the coral), and eliminating these chemicals is as simple as running carbon in your back chambers.

From my experience with the JBJ 28 (Which would be the most similar make on the market to your cad light... 150W HQI with 2 13W actinic...) Don't even think of touching any SPS corals until the tank is around 6 months old, even then unless you have perfect and STABLE (That word is so important) water conditions (including an Auto top off system). The reason I upgraded my tank is because even with a 10G fuge attached to my 28G there was just not enough water volume to keep a consistent salinity. Also why are you saying fish or coral? There not allergic to each other, instead of just going with one how about you pick up both (No rushing though). Do some reading on Soft Corals and LPS before you take the dive. As a first purchase for your fish tank I would get something from the following list:

Corals-
Zoos, Mushrooms, Rica's, Yumas, GSP, Pulsing X, Toad Stool, Leathers, Favia, Fungia, Colt, Kenya...
Fish- Clown Fish, Gobies (Clown, Randals, Rainfords, 2 Spot...), Wrasses (6 Line and Filiment), Blennys (Bi-Color, watch temperment on these species though), IMO just plain and simple stay away from the following: Chromis, Any Dwarf Angel, Any Tang species, Certain wrasses (Coris, Lunar...) and READ up on the animals you buy before you do so. Remember unless you have a great relationship with your LFS they are usually in it for the money (Too many times have I had a LFS sell me something that "will be fine in my tank" only to have it cause problems.

Levi

[Captainhemo]

and go slowly, give your tank time to adjust to new additions

[Oscar]

Also why are you saying fish or coral? There not allergic to each other, instead of just going with one how about you pick up both (No rushing though). Do some reading on Soft Corals and LPS before you take the dive. As a first purchase for your fish tank I would get something from the following list:

Corals-
Zoos, Mushrooms, Rica's, Yumas, GSP, Pulsing X, Toad Stool, Leathers, Favia, Fungia, Colt, Kenya...
Fish- Clown Fish, Gobies (Clown, Randals, Rainfords, 2 Spot...), Wrasses (6 Line and Filiment), Blennys (Bi-Color, watch temperment on these species though),

Levi

Thanks Levi.

My original plan was to stay with only corals and CUC for the first few months, then someone mentioned adding a couple of fish to start with. That got me thinking that I maybe I had the sequence backwards.

My list was similar to yours: zoos, mushrooms, ricordia, GSP

Fish: clowns, gobies, 6 line wrasse, blennie

And yes I am awaiting the arrival of a top off mechanism, now that it is finally getting warmer I am adding a lot of top off water in the morning and evening.