Thank you for all the help!!! So what's next?

[Kelloggs2800]

I know there is definitely some people who have posted something like this before but I wanted to post separately to say thank you to everyone that helped previously while my tank was cycling. It has now completed and even confirmed this with my LFS yesterday. I am even already seeing feather dusters popping up all around the live rock (about 10 so far that I see but still very small) So what is next?

I have an EVO 13.5. I am definitely getting 2 clown fish and an emerald crab but what else can I put in the tank?

I will more then likely not put any other fish but not sure what else I need to put for CUC. I was told to wait on the emerald because it will clean super fast and I need to wait until the tank has stuff it can actually eat.

Just trying to get an idea of what to get. What snails, what hermits, how many of each, things in that nature?

I bought the tank used so the substrate is about a year old. Not sure if that means I should be getting CUC right away or get the fish first and wait a bit for CUC.

I appreciate any advise or ideas that people have. Thank you for your time to everyone who responds.

 

[fishski13]

Like you said above I would stick to the two clowns in this size tank especially in the beginning.

As for cuc, I usually wait until I see signs of algae formation as that is the main food source for most cuc. If you dont have enough algae and without supplemental feeding they will just die off.

When the time is right, I would definitely get an assortment of turbos, banded trochus, and nassarius/bumblebee snails. You could also get some hermits, but not the best for most types of algae and you can throw in some urchins or other unique cuc members but that is often only done if the algae is a certain type and there is a lot of it.

And once you get your two clowns, and you have some nutrients present in the water, you can definitely add some coral.

 

[AquaDaniel]

I’d first add CUC that eats detritus such as cleaner shrimp and nassarius snail, to help clean the leftover that your fish doesn’t get to eat. When you have algae growing, you can start to add other snails or crabs

 

[Kelloggs2800]

I’d first add CUC that eats detritus such as cleaner shrimp and nassarius snail, to help clean the leftover that your fish doesn’t get to eat. When you have algae growing, you can start to add other snails or crabs

I now have 1 nassarius snail (had 2 but one died. Actually got 3 but they sold me an empty shell lol), I have a cleaner shrimp, 1 emerald crab, and 3 hermits. Everything is thriving so for now I am not worried about the 1 snail dying. It probably was not good to begin with.

 

[AydenLincoln]

2 fish max it out. I’d go with a cleaner shrimp, maybe some snails, and possibly a small urchin once the tank matures and has enough algae.