Scros,

I'm thinking of starting a 30 gallon saltwater tank. I'm looking at doing 12lbs of live rock and 8 pounds of dry live rock. The animals would be a mandarin goby and clown fish.

My main question is, can I just add the pods to the tank about a month before putting in the goby in hopes that they populate the rocks? or what is the best way to make a self sustaining set up for the goby?

Pods come naturally over time.     My 144g half circle before it crashed  

They only coral to survive the crash i put in a 34g red sea max  

Thats crazy it crashed half way.

I mean copepods. i mean buying a 30 dollar botttle every week seems crazy

but waiting a year for a cycle is a bit too much as well.

For a mandarin, you will either need to supplement every week or buy one that you actually observe eating other food (and yes, some will). There is no way you will keep a large enough pod population in a 30 for a mandarin without regular supplementation or a fish that will take other food. They are voracious eaters.

Also, you'll want 1.5-2 lbs of rock per gallon of water, so you may want to up the amount of rock by a good bit. Some of it can be added to the sump if you don't want that much in the display, and you can also look at setting up a sizable refugium in the sump system as a pod farm.

That's why I was wanting to make self sustaining food source, so I wouldn't be spending a bunch of money on food. I guess I'll stick with two clowns unless I find a mandarin that eats other stuff.

Thanks

The spotted mandarins will take other foods over time, (the other mandarin is very picky about live food only).But you will still need pods to start with. Having a reguium will help generate and maintain your pods. I have been doing this for over 20 years and know just enough to say I don't know jack.  That being said I have advised people to get a CPR style refugium to with hang on their tank of put in their sump. http://m.marinedepot.com/products/cr1721/cpr-aquafuge-2-hang-on-refugium?group=false
These can be found used for a good price on Craigslist or saltwater aquarium boards cheap.

I like to be able to isolate the refugium so as to help control the algae and keep it out of the main pump. A bottle of pods dumped in the the refugium when the tank is cycled will help jump start that colony. Then starting with a bottle in to your tank should give you a  good start. After 3-4 months you should be able to stir your refugium by hand and release pods to drift in to the tank. Starting with once every 2-3 weeks and working up over time.

To help monitor the healt of your fish you can observe their belly. If it's pinched in they either are not getting enough food or have internal issues.  Nanoreef.com, reeffrontiers.com, reefcentral.com are all great sites.

This is just scratching the surface FYI.
Saltwater aquariums are like AR's. You can have a PSA and it shoots every time. Or you can buy a Larue, LMT, ect. You get more attention to detail and better performance. But planning for you goals is the most important factor. Hope I didn't confuse you or scare you away.

Good luck. Hope the helps.

Nice reef.  It's sad when they crash. Had a 180 gallon clam and hard coral tank crash. Just couldn't keep up on the calcium and alkalinity. I now have a calcium reactor. This hobby is just as addicting and expensive and guns.

Their are some out there that will take frozen foods, I think ORA distributes them I had a scooter blenny(mandarin family) that would eat frozen, but even so you need to keep the pod population going cause they pretty much spend all their waking hours grazing pods around the tank, a 30 or 40 gallon tank alone wont sustain the numbers you need, you'll have to have decent size fuge as well, even then you'll still want add fresh pods occasionally to keep the population up. If you decide you want an anemone for the clowns wait till the tanks been established and stable for a good 6 months. Also if you havent purchased the tank yet consider a 40 breeder much nicer footprint for aquascaping.