New 15 gallon nano ... next steps?

[jeffrey richard]

My 15 gallon reef tank is one week old today ? looking for advice on next steps.

Here are ?the facts? ?
- standard 15 Gallon glass tank
- 96 watt Coralife Powerquad PC w 50/50 bulb
- 2 Maxijet 400s with sponge prefilters for circulation
- AC500 fug with sand, rock and chaeto, also have a bag of Chemipure in fug
- 9 watt Allglass PC screw-in bulb to light fug
- 20 lbs of established live rock I obtained from a local hobbyist; includes Xenia, Polyps, Mushrooms, Green Star Polyp
- 1.5 inch layer of live sand (from the same hobbyist)

History ?
- mixed up salt & water a week ago last Wednesday ? ran in my tank for a day and a ?
- tested water on Monday ? Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, pH = 8.1
- Most of the life was doing well, except the Xenia ? it is ?wilted? and ?shriveled ?
- Added rock and sand on Friday last (2/10) ? no fug and lighting was ?temporary ? standard florescent bulbs (3 20 watt) ? waiting on replacement PC Powerquad bulb
- Added fug, chaeto and some mushrooms on Wednesday Feb 15
- 20% water change on Friday, Feb 17 ? tested water; Ammonia = 0, Nitite = 0, pH = 8.1, Nitrate = 5 ppm. Added spoonful of Seachem Marine Buffer

NEXT STEPS ? I want to add clean-up crew next week
- 3-4 Red Legged hermits
- Snails ? 3 or 4 each of Trochus, Super Tongan Nassarius, Cerith
- 3 sexy shrimp

Any reason not to add as the water parameters seem fine?

Following week ? pair of Percula clowns

Please comment/advise

Thanks

 

[jeffrey richard]

Tank as of Monday

 

[Kiah]

If the xenia dies off you may have a system spike.

 

[Moe_K]

Hmm, doesn't sound like you allowed time for your tank to cycle.
Any reason? That'd be my guess as to why the Xenia is shrivelled, and the Green Star Polyps look withdrawn.

I'd not add anything else for at least another week and see what happens.
After that, I'd maybe add the clean up crew if things are okay.

Then I'd wait 4 more weeks before I added any fish or any more inverts.