Which comes first?

[whosinpower]

Hey all;

Even though my tank is months away from being anything - I have taken the liberty of doing a little research and shopping around for corals, fish, inverts, etc.

And here comes another newbie (probably totally stupid) question...
First of all, planning a reeftank (mostly softies and LPS to begin with) - 90 gallons, with sump. After the tank has cycled with liverock and has stabilized (30-90 days??) would I add reefcrew invert's first as first bioload? And then after another couple of months - would I add my fish? Or would I add corals before fish?????

Which comes first? Does it matter?

Thanks

[Dripline]

Probably doesn't matter too much with most common critters...but as a rule you add your clean-up crew first...then maybe a fish or two...and then add easy corals and zoas...

[Level9]

If you want your corals to do well, add your corals before your fish. Do some research on fish that are compatable with the corals you want to keep. I recommend that you don't get any angels if you want to keep corals (they will nip at them & teach other fish to as well).

[Richy]

If you want your corals to do well, add your corals before your fish.

Just wondering your thinking on this comment. Please elaborate.

Thanks

[Level9]

If you add corals before your fish, they will generally do better, because you don't have anything picking at them and the water quality is usually better because you aren't overfeeding your tank (generally the mistake of a novice reef keeper). Once you have coral some coral growth is usually when I start to add fish (slowly). Just my opinion & experience.

[sphelps]

I would probably start with a couple fish, then go into corals. But once the tank has cycled it really doesn't matter, as far as I know.

[Jon123]

Once cycled theres no order you have to take as far as adding livestock. Id slowly add a cleaup crew once algae starts growing and add your shyest or hardiest fish soon after the cycle is complete. After that, if everything is going smoothly, add corals and fish as you find the ones your looking for. Since fish have a considerably higher bioload than corals or inverts, I try and limit myself to 1 or 2 fish a month.

Jon