Nano reef

Question
I set up a 5 gallon nano reef! It's been cycleing for a month with 6 lbs of live rock! Lots of algae growth! Yesterday a got a sml damsel, sml Sally light foot crab, and three tiny hermits, 2 snails, and I got a tiny mushroom polyp given to me by the guy at petco:)! Anyway my question is can I add a sand sifting star or something to stir the sand? Also I know I will have to do water changes! How often and how much? And can I put a few coral in there with out over loading the system? Thank you!

Answer
i would ensure that your tanks is fully cycled. you should test and make sure. also your tank is a bit small for any damsel, i would suggest a tank no smaller than 10 gallons for any damsel, and many people think nothing under 20. so i would suggest taking that out and adding something much more fitting for the tank such as a clown or panda goby. also what is your lighting? coral is photosynthetic so it needs lots of light. many light fixtures would work great over your tank such as a panorama pro, or a par38 led fixture. of course any power compact fixture could grow a few softies but if you want harder corals youll need some heavier lighting. as for the sand sifting star i would keep that out of the nano.

also i would suggest getting your livestock elseware, i am aware petco has good prices and sometimes may even have some quality livestock but go to another lfs and youll get much better livestock. many animals offered for sale at petco are already sickly and end up dying so you end up spending more replacing them than you could pay for one at another place in general.

good luck to you!

Marcus.