Thank you
1- Bought instant ocean salt mix, 2 large pieces of LR (did not pay much attention to the weight, may be 3 or 4 pounds), one piece had soft corals on it, about 5 branches (there are 9 now). Yes, the LR were cured and already well colonized with coraline; and caribsea live sand (i believe instant aquarium). the sand bed is anywhere between 2 to 3 inches deep.
2- I filled up tow buckets of tap water and used a dechlorinator, let it sit for 48 hours, then added it to the aquarium with the salt and a tube of aquabella. Let the aquarium run over night. Added the sand and waited for an additional until it had settled down before turning the pump/filter back on for 48 hours and then added the live rocks, a duncan, 2 clown fish and recently a peppermint shrimp because of infestation of aiptasia. Forgot the astraea snail.
3- i only have a penguin 150
4- turn on the light at noon and shut them up at 9pm. lights are LED.
Does this help?
PS: now i am starting to worry that i might need to add supplements. any recommendation that would not involve WC, i'd like to run the experiment for at least 6 months (which would have paid for the product).