Mandarin fish in 120 gallons reef?

[GSMclowns]

Hello Everyone,

I have a 120 gallons reef with BareBottom and about 100 lbs of live rocks. I run pretty high flow here and without any refugium at the moment. The tank has been running for about 9 months now. I do see some small pods running around if I look close enough. I will wait for another 6 months before I put any mandarin in it.

My fish list is as follow:
2 True Perc
2 Yellowtail Damsel
2 Lyretail anthias
1 Marine Betta
1 Royal Gramma
1 Pajama Cardinal.
1 Yellow Tang

So what do you guys think? Do I have enough rocks for a single Green Mandarin?
I am not planning on feeding the Mandarin for now. Will this tank have enough Pods to support the fish?

Thanks

 

[MondoBongo]

my two concerns:

1.) no fuge
2.) bare bottom

my mandy spends more time picking at the sand than she does at the rocks. your mileage may vary, and perhaps someone else with a bare bottom tank of similar size will chime in.

at the very least, i would be setting up a fuge, and possibly adding more rock to the display and sump.

i run well over 100 pounds of rock, and sand, in my 75.

 

[badpvtdan]

I don't think it's enough. You will need a fuge.

 

[ThRoewer]

Rocks are only of value if they are porous enough for small critters to live in them. Coral branch rock or artificial rocks like Real Reef are usually too solid to be of real value for pods. Though Real Reef is great for fish that need small caves, holes and crevices.

I have a pair of mandarins in a 18 gallon cube now for 6 months doing fine. I added them after the tank was 3 weeks old and when the pod density was so high that they formed clouds around the rocks. About two months ago I also added a bluestripe pipefish. All doing OK so far.

But I have a roughly 1 inch layer of coarse gravel that is full of crustacean (Amphipods, Mysis, Isopods ...), baby snails and brittle stars. I also have 3 mini refugiums.
And I constantly add tigger pods from an external culture.

The size of your tank should be fine but I would either add gravel or a large refugium, best would be both.