mandarin dragonet tank

[Doug]

Here are some of my suggestions if you wish to base the tank on mandarins.

1. Your on the right track with lots of live rock,{dont skimp} and the dsb.
It will take awile for the sand & rock to be able to support mandarins.

2. The refugium sounds good. You could also grow different calerpa algaes or seagrass in the main tank instead, if you wished. Perfect home for mandarins and the food they eat.

3. Your lighting will be fine for the above algae and most soft corals. In a tank thats set up as described, corals like leathers would be nice. Also several polyps type corals.
I would stay away from anemones or any lps corals that eat larger things.

4. Non aggressive fish would be best tankmates. Although I have tangs and a large pair of clowns with my mandarin, I would avoide those if one one was setting the tank up with them in mind, esp for breeding purpose.
Also watch for other fish like wrasse,s that compete for food with the mandarins.