No...I enjoy learning all I can. One question: Why pipefish? I thought most people that use a fish for initial cycle, use a damsel or chromid///you know....something cheap and "disposable" so to say?
There is utility from pipe fish, specifically dragons, for an sps tank as they consume red bugs and other pests that plague certain sps.
If you are going fishless, the most simple way to keep things running well is to just do water changes with water from your main system. I know your goal is to keep things fishless and you really don't have to keep fish in the frag tank.
One piece of anecdotal experience, fishless frag tanks tend to mature a lot slower. Without the constant fish poop and surge of bacteria that grows from the poop/feeding, things just progress significantly slower than a fish system.
As long as your frag tank can process the ammonia you're adding, and your params are maintained at the levels you want, you can add in corals at any time. I have added corals as soon as a week after I set up the tank once the cycling was complete. There's no additional voodoo going on. Corals want small amounts of nitrates/phosphates, some trace elements, and their alk/calc/mag needs met. If you can satisfy that, you're good.
I would consider adding sand and rock from your main system to help this out a little bit. It's also just harder to maintain unless you're doing larger water changes with water from your main system. Fish really do keep everything in balance. I've seen others add a little bit of skimmate from their displays skimmer as an alternative. I've done it a bit but just prefer water from my main system.
It's 2020, to cycle, just get some pure ammonium chloride and a crap ton of bottled bacteria. Once the bacteria is able to clear ~1ppm of ammonia and nitrite in a 24 hour period, you're good.
