hey all, i'm from singapore. i'm new to this hobby, need some guidance. I just bought a small 1 ft tank finally, i think ard 6 gallons (BOYU MT-30), it comes with powercompact light (18w), filter and cooling fans already >> http://www.boyu.us/eng/aquarium-kit/MT_30.htm

firstly not too sure about the cycling, whether is it better to throw in uncooked shrimp or just let the live rocks cycle itself? am also not too sure about the height of my sand bed, my tank ain't very big and when i picture a 2" deep already seems very high. also, during the cycling process, do i still need to do water changes and do i need to still top up the evaporated water?

secondly, i'm scared to overload my tank hence i'm not sure how many corals can i exactly get. i'm planning to get easy corals (as read in many places) like mushrooms/leathers/LPS, but i'm not sure EXACTLY what mushroom and leather, any good recommendations (cheap and nice and easy to take care)? i read that for my tank size its only able to tolerate max 2 clowns. how about gobies?

and also, if i get corals, what do i feed them? like some microplanktons thingy?

is it necessary for additives?

am also planning to get a cleanup crew (like cleaner shrimps), any other rec and how many should i get? and i dun need to FEED this clean up crew right? (since they feed on the detritus)

sorry for the bombarding qsns. pls correct me if i misunderstand anything. thanks!

to nano-reef.com

Don't use shrimp for the cycle; the live rock is all you need. Adding shrimp is an overload because you won't normally introduce that much food when you have your livestock.

You don't have to have a large sand bed; even 1" is fine.

You always need to top off for evaporation, but water changes during the cycle depend on your live rock quality. Fresh uncured rock with lots of things that may die are one candidate for water changes (this is called soft cycling).

The corals you listed are good choices; they will have a negligible bioload. 2 clowns is what I would consider overstocked for a 6 gallon; one or two very small (Eviota, Trimma, Gobiodon, Elacatinus/Gobiosoma) gobies is a better choice, though a fishless tank would be more stable.

The corals you listed, except for some LPS, don't need to be fed, and microplankton is not useful for feeding the LPS. Something larger like mysis shrimp is okay, but you have to be careful about overfeeding a small tank.

No additives are necessary for the livestock you listed.

Cleaner shrimp are not necessary to a clean up crew (they need to be fed along with the fish), which is mainly made of herbivores (to eat algae) or scavengers. Herbivorous snails like cerith and trochus snails should be the largest part of your CUC. Look here for more help:
http://www.chucksaddiction.com/cleanupcrew.html

cool tank, and HA! at the carpet nem and clowns in the 6g tank. Do NOT do that with yours, lol. (Edit: In the picture on the website you linked to)

+1 to the eviota and trimma gobies. and being in singapore, you should have decent access to them.

only put a carpet in there if you add a few large tangs

thanks all, but i am just wondering what does a good live rock looks like? how do i identify the "lives" on the live rock?
and is it okay if i do without live sand and just use normal grade 0 sand as my sand bed? i even had advices saying that i can even go bare bottom since my tank is so small.
and i REALLY LOVE clowns, is it okay to have ONE clown + a small goby? (:

You can go bare bottom on the tank, or you can also buy plain, dead sand.
Critters in the Live Rock will eventually colonize the sand and make it live.
Just make sure you get good quality sand with no contaminants.

If you have a clownfish it should be one of the smaller Clowns, and the Clownfish needs to be the only fish.
Even then you will be pushing your Bioload a little bit.

Smaller clown = occelaris

thanks a million! just asking, is it normal to have bubbles forming around the tank and LR during cycling?

yep - that's a normal algae bloom. it'll go away in time with good water quality and a good cleanup crew.