help me plan please

[Executivelevel]

welcome to 3reef! you found a great place to help you start your yank!! the only thing i would really suggest is finding a local source for live rock, shipping 90-150 lbs of rock will be very expensive, and if you do it slowly, even more shipping!! but definatly, take your time, research and buy all the right stuff, or as close to it as possible the first time, it will save a bunch of $$ in the long run. and a 90 or 120 is a great tank to start with, i did a 120 as my first, and i still got it!! so, bring on the questions, there are lots of people here who'd love to help you out!!

[footballdude2k3]

ok so for my 90 or 120, prolly around 200lbs or so? plus a 3 inch layer of "dead" sand plus another 2-3 of live sand sounds like what is suggested, then after 3 months i read that you are supposed to put in the cleaner crew and sea cucumber then after another 3 months, a fish, is this correct?

[Executivelevel]

well, 200 lbs is not entirely necessary, about 100 to 150 will be good, and just about a 2-3 inch layer of sand will do as well, live or dead, doesnt matter, it will become live anyways. put it all in, turn on heater and get some flow going for a few weeks 3-4 or so, then add one or two little damsels or clowns and let it cycle for about another month with the lights on. you dont need any clean up crew for the first 1-2 months until you start to see algae, then just start with 20-50 hermits and you should be ok.

[footballdude2k3]

thanks for all the help and encouragement guys, i cant wait to start getting all of this together