Fish or Corals?

[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]

Originally Posted by i2as kass

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.