first reef tank aquatop 40eco

[kbclamper]

This is my first salt water tank. I set it up as a finding nemo fish only tank for my daughters 3rd birthday and am now getting into lps corals. I havent ran into any major problems yet and everything seems to be going good except for my bubble coral looks like it has algae on its skeleton. Heres a list of what i got
aquatop 40g eco
icecap 2k wavemaker
uv steriizer

coral
green torch
hologram hammer
green montipora
pink montipora
kryptonite candy cane
green bubble

fish
blue hippo tang
2 ocellaris clowns
pink and yellow dotty back
diamond watchman goby
blue damsel

cleanup crew
2 cleaner shrimp
4 emerald crabs
2 red leg hermits
2 blue leg hermits
8 assorted snail

 

[GoReefin]

Hi, welcome to the hobby! The bubble coral is not happy. Have you checked your parameters? Maybe your light is too strong?Also the tang will quickly outgrow the tank. Should look into a 90g or larger aquarium to house him long term. Live rock for a reef tank I hear is minimum 1 pound per gallon of water for good filtration.

 

[kbclamper]

the bubble coral looks better now but still not great. all parameters are in check. the light is the one the tank came with, its not controllable. theres 35lbs of live rock and 40lbs of live sand.

 

[GoReefin]

Good to hear it is doing better. Have you gone through a complete cycle yet? How old is the tank now? Also it is usually recommended to have 1 fish per 10 gallons of water. You are a bit heavy on your bio-load which isn't a problem if you do weekly or bi-weekly water changes around 10-15% total water volume. have you started feeding the tang nori yet? You should feed him nori at least 2 times a week.

 

[kbclamper]

Good to hear it is doing better. Have you gone through a complete cycle yet? How old is the tank now? Also it is usually recommended to have 1 fish per 10 gallons of water. You are a bit heavy on your bio-load which isn't a problem if you do weekly or bi-weekly water changes around 10-15% total water volume. have you started feeding the tang nori yet? You should feed him nori at least 2 times a week.

Water changes every other week. Tank is 6 months old. I have not fed the tang anything but brine shrimp. Thats what my lfs recommended

 

[GoReefin]

Water changes every other week. Tank is 6 months old. I have not fed the tang anything but brine shrimp. Thats what my lfs recommended

Some nori would be of benefit to the tang. They are omnivores and voracious grazers

 

[kbclamper]

Got a couple new hammers and my bubble coral is starting to come back.

 

[kbclamper]

have a couple of updates. my hammers seem to be doing good. my bubble coral seems to be coming back and i think im growing coralline finally.

 

[GoReefin]

have a couple of updates. my hammers seem to be doing good. my bubble coral seems to be coming back and i think im growing coralline finally.

Looks good finally maturing some!

 

[kbclamper]

been awhile since ive updated so i thought i would put up some pictures. ive got some hair algae that im trying to get rid of, other than that things seem to be going good. i got some new torches and hammers and also picked up my first acros to try out. i also upgraded my light to a redsea 90 and it has made a big difference in the last 45 days.