Hi there R2R! Super noob signing up.

[Phatfish]

Any other animals thinking of adding

I just added a colony of green zooanthids they look great, but they were carrying a few Majano anemones I had to kill off. I'll probably only add one or two more fish in time. I used to have a Mandarin fish that I loved, but I was worried about it running out of food since I don't have a fuge for the pods to breed in. I traded him for the clowns. Eventually I'll get another one of those for sure!

 

[Phatfish]

Otherwise, increasing flow/stirring your sandbed will help prevent the cyano bacteria from colonizing (you can also manually remove some of it to help keep it at bay) if it is red cyano, you should see a recession in the colony before your lights turn on, and a much larger colony later in the day- this is because the bacteria are photosynthetic, and their byproducts are the red slime algae you can visibly see

Yes that's definitely what it is. Every week or so I blow what's grown on the rocks off with a turkey baster and suck it up with the vac. Then I vac out the sand. It's improved greatly from the full blown infestation I had at first. Happened shortly after I bought a new led light. So... understandable. It comes back on the sand though right away.

 

[Phatfish]

Hi Phatfish,

Welcome to the forum
Good choice of stock!
Why do you want to upgrade it?

Zhenya

I just want to get a proper system with a fuge going. It takes more maintenance without it as I understand. I'll prob use my existing tank as the sump once I get to that point, but I'm in no rush.