My 90 Gallon Reef

sriley · Aug 23, 2014

I am a newbie in this hobby and my 90 gallon (first SW tank) has now been running for about 10 months. I absolutely love it and am very much enjoying my slow build. I am currently running 4 T5's and a reef octopus protein skimmer. I know I need to upgrade some of my equipment and my sump in general. Eventually I would like to add a refugium and a custom sump to help with my filtration. I would also like to upgrade my lights to LED and also my powerhead to have either more of them or better ones in general. Please feel free to offer feedback on what I should do next (coral, fish, or equipment) and any other suggestions as well! I am on a limited budget right now as a single dad, but my tank is very important to my son (3 1/2 year old) and I. We spend literally hours a day staring at it and messing with it in whatever way is needed. Here are pictures of it currently as of today.

As for livestock; 1 small sail fin tang, 1 blue hippo tang, 1 fox face rabbitfish, 1 solar wrasse, 1 lyre tail anthia, 2 false percula clowns, 5 green chromis, 1 bangai cardinal, 1 coral beauty angel, 1 dragonet, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 fire shrimp, and 2 peppermint shrimp, and of course the usual cleanup crew as well (snails and hermits)

sriley · Aug 23, 2014

sriley · Aug 23, 2014

sriley · Aug 23, 2014

sriley · Aug 26, 2014

Any opinions to any of this?

J Rog · Aug 26, 2014

Nice tank

I think your aqua scape looks great.

sriley · Aug 26, 2014

Thank you! I am still very much a newbie and am learning more every day. I am trying very hard though, its a work in progress. I have been fighting the cyano slime for quite a while, but I am constantly doing my water changes and trying to clean. I know with time it will pass. Any suggestions on what I should do next (fish, more CUC, corals, equipment, etc...)?

fishroomlady · Aug 26, 2014

tank looks great! so cool that you're able to share the hobby with your son - could your dori and nemo be related to that?

if you're dealing with some uglies and you have some algae, I think adding a variety of CUC could be a good next step. I think you may be pretty close to maxed on fish.

Familyguy · Aug 26, 2014

I am new as well. I love ur tank looks so clean and ur aqua scap looks great to

sriley · Aug 26, 2014

fishroomlady said:
tank looks great! so cool that you're able to share the hobby with your son - could your dori and nemo be related to that? if you're dealing with some uglies and you have some algae, I think adding a variety of CUC could be a good next step. I think you may be pretty close to maxed on fish.

Thanks! Yes I agree I was thinking I am kind of maxed on fish also. You are right about the dori and nemo combo for my son, lol. This has been an incredible learning experience for him which for sure inspires me to keep pushing more. Even at 3 1/2, he is the one that tells any visitor we have the types of any corals, fish, or invertebrates we have. He also can name off pretty much anything at our LFS, he has absorbed this stuff like a sponge! I believe I will take your advice and work on upping my CUC.

sriley · Aug 26, 2014

Any suggestions for a particular kind of cleanup crew member? Specific kinds of snails, hermits or whatever that may be good for the cyano that I have been trying to get rid of?

sriley · Aug 26, 2014

I also have some majano anemones that are seeming to do very well in my tank that I may need to address getting rid of (probably about 10 of them as of now).