I have been lurking on and off for several yrs here on the central and may have seen this but since the thread has been cleaned out I have to ask.... So here is the scenario we have decided to cave and set up a reef tank (ie she caved and decided it would be easier to give her blessing than to continue listening to me complain 
) so I negotiated to a 24x24x18 (wanted a 75 or 90 but if it were her choice it would have been a 12 gal nano in the corner) reef ready cube and got that in place. Now I am slowly getting the rest of the necessaries together. Putting a package in it is still 3-6 months off however by the time I do I plan to have at least a 20 gal custom sump with 10 or so gallons of that a refugium for pods and any mantis we gain with the package...
With all that background out of the way the only fish we intend on having in the tank (we are more interested in the critters than the fish for the most part) are a goby paired with a shrimp (cant get enough of the relationship) a clown (her choice) and a mandarin (my choice) for 3-4 total fish with likely less than a foot in total length.
So the questions at hand are how loaded up is the package with pods generally?
I do not intend any livestock out of the gate at the same time I want to make sure I have a very strong population between the fuge and the display before the mandarin comes home.
Do you or would you recommend additional package for the fuge and how would you factor it ie gallons or footprint?
On the same note having nontraditional tank dimensions when ordering should I follow the standardized order form or adjust for footprint of the tank?
Thank you Richard for all you do for the industry it has truly been a pleasure to live vicariously through your customers and I cannot wait till I am one myself.
) so I negotiated to a 24x24x18 (wanted a 75 or 90 but if it were her choice it would have been a 12 gal nano in the corner) reef ready cube and got that in place. Now I am slowly getting the rest of the necessaries together. Putting a package in it is still 3-6 months off however by the time I do I plan to have at least a 20 gal custom sump with 10 or so gallons of that a refugium for pods and any mantis we gain with the package... With all that background out of the way the only fish we intend on having in the tank (we are more interested in the critters than the fish for the most part) are a goby paired with a shrimp (cant get enough of the relationship) a clown (her choice) and a mandarin (my choice) for 3-4 total fish with likely less than a foot in total length.
So the questions at hand are how loaded up is the package with pods generally?
I do not intend any livestock out of the gate at the same time I want to make sure I have a very strong population between the fuge and the display before the mandarin comes home.
Do you or would you recommend additional package for the fuge and how would you factor it ie gallons or footprint?
On the same note having nontraditional tank dimensions when ordering should I follow the standardized order form or adjust for footprint of the tank?
Thank you Richard for all you do for the industry it has truly been a pleasure to live vicariously through your customers and I cannot wait till I am one myself.
