Which livestock first?

[In Deep Water]

My cycle is near complete of my new 30gallon setup. What type of livestock should I be looking at first? I originally wanted a FOWLR, but believe Im going reef instead. Should I be starting with a cleanup crew? Whats the best way to start the aquariums chain of life?

 

[2fishy]

If all of your parameters are back to zero, then I would add a cleanup crew of hermit crabs and snails.

 

[In Deep Water]

Any type in perticular? LiveAquaria has a deal on a cleanup crew for the 30gallon for like $150? Anyone know about it?

 

[2fishy]

etropicals has a build your own or prepacked cleaners also (part of the Drs. Foster and Smith family of websites), and shipping is calculated into the prices. A group of friends ordered some in January or February and everything came in great. On the build your own, you have to order more then $60 to not get charged the additional shipping, and on both the build your own or the packages, you can't add other things from the rest of the site or you will have to pay the $34.99 shipping. It's a pretty good deal when you only need inverts!

 

[TX26257]

http://www.reeftopia.com/


I like these people

 

[Shagsbeard]

Those "packages" are typically way overboard. I'd get one for 1/5 my capacity at first at most.

 

[lat0403]

I used Etropicals. Like Shagsbeard said, I thought the packages were much bigger than I needed. I used the BYO package. It wasn't that hard to come up with $60 worth. But if I had to do it again, I wouldn't get hardly any hermits. They're all killing each other. I even put empty shells in there.

 

[handapanda]

lat0403: Could be that the hermits are killing eachother for food.

InDeepWater: after getting a few inverts and letting them hang out for a while, you should start with ONE hearty fish. Many people use damsels because they are cheap and hard to kill. But, I don't like damsels much and wouldn't want to keep one, so I personally would start with a clown.

 

[davidryder]

Check eBay, too. I find a lot of good deals with reasonable shipping there.

 

[In Deep Water]

Thanks everyone.