First Year of Reef Parenting

[Eevee Army]

How can I upgrade my reef keeping? Should i get new corals if so which ones and my tank feels kinda empty what should I get? Would it be safe to add another fish or 2 into the tank?

I currently have a 45 gal display tank with a 18gal sump. I have set up the reef back in September of 2025.

(The fire fish is very shy and hides either in the rock or will go behind the rock to not be in front of the tank)

Livestock:

Yellow watchman goby

Ocellaris clownfish x2

Firefish

Banggai cardinal

Invert:

Emerald crab x1

Tiger pistol shrimp x1

Mexican turbo snails x3

Trochus snail x5

Nassarius snails x4

Blue legged hermit crabs x4

Cerith snail x2 (had more but keep getting eaten by hermits and tiger)

Nerite Snail x5

Tuxedo urchin (fine one day, hallowed out the next)

Corals:

Space Invader Pectinia

War Favia

Frogspawn

Goniopora

Burning Banana Stylocoeniella

Purple Monsters Zoa

Toadstool

Superman Discosoma which has propagated

Kenya Tree which has also propagated

Tank Parameters:

Very stable with O ammonia or nitrite and 3ppm nitrate

Mg: 1360 Ca:400 dka: 8.5

20% Water change is done biweekly tank and sump are cleaned weekly

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally I would get a pair of powerheads in the tank, it looks so still, the surface is too flat. I would get some larger wavy type corals to get some back and forth motion in the tank. Goni's, Toadstools, gorgonians, and torches. Hammers and Frogspawns would also look good.

What kind of light do you have on the tank?

 

[Eevee Army]

I have two 45W full-spectrum Ahareef lights (from Amazon), which I run at only 30% intensity with blue light. I have found that if I increase the intensity beyond that, I get brown algae on the glass, and GHA grows more quickly in certain areas.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Lighting might be an issue, I have 150 watts on my 40 gallon at full power and I have no algae. Corals and Algae need the exact same things, so if you are cutting lights to hurt algae it will also hurt the corals. Algae is something we have to work through regardless of the lighting. Just my 2 cents

 

[Eevee Army]

Lighting might be an issue, I have 150 watts on my 40 gallon at full power and I have no algae. Corals and Algae need the exact same things, so if you are cutting lights to hurt algae it will also hurt the corals. Algae is something we have to work through regardless of the lighting. Just my 2 cents

Would you say I need a larger CUC to keep up with the algae?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Growth on the glass is normal, we all scrape the glass every few days. Some also some algae growth can also be normal, its hard to say without knowing the situation, but it seems to me like you have stunted the tank maturity with low lighting. After one year I feel your corals should be bigger, the mushrooms should have split more.

Personally I would crank up the lights and add more flow (algae loves low flow) and then see what the tank can really do.

 

[Eevee Army]

Growth on the glass is normal, we all scrape the glass every few days. Some also growth can also be normal, its hard to say without knowing the situation, but it seems to me like you have stunted the tank maturity with low lighting. After one year I feel your corals should be bigger, the mushrooms should have split more.

Personally I would crank up the lights and add more flow (algae loves low flow) and then see what the tank can really do.

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up I will definitely try this out and see what happens :)