90 gallon start up

[Mark The Shark]

Hello everybody this is my first post so excited to talk and get ideas. I recently received a 90 Gallon reef setup with not much cost and I'm hoping for ideas and thoughts. Details:

90 Gallon aquarium with overflow. Stand and canopy.
Trigger Systems crystal sump
4 inch 200 micron sock with carbon bubble Magnus protein skimmer. Marine depot return pump with controller. And also another fluval bag.
Around 50 pounds of rock
2 hydro korilia powerhead
Aquatic life t5 lighting system
250 W Heater

Current Livestock:
2 Mocha Clowns
1 Green Spotted Puffer

So I'm looking for ideas on fish and corals and thought on filter media and anything else I may need for the sump or tank??

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Welcome to R2R! Looks like you're already off to a great start!

The puffer may not be a good fit for corals in the long run. I had a valentini puffer that loved to eat favia coral haha I know green spotted puffers are a bit different from Toby puffers like the valentini, but they still have the tendency to nip at stuff out of sheer curiosity. Corals are not a big fan of nipping

You could probably get some chaeto running on the filter sock side of the sump, you may have to do some DIY stuff to mount a light over it but I don't see why you could have a refugium in there for the tank.

With your current lighting you could easily get some soft corals and mushrooms established in the tank and upgrade to something better later if you want to get higher light requirement corals. You may even be able to put some lower light LPS corals towards the top of your rockwork.

You may also want some redundancy systems like a temp controller for the heater, here is a commonly used one.
A lighting timer may also be helpful if the Aquatic Life fixture you have doesn't already have one built in.

Other than that, the only other thing I can say is go slow and have patience, both of those will help you have a successful experience with your reef aquarium

 

[Mark The Shark]

Yea the light has a timer thankfully. How long so you leave your lights.on? The light I have had blue, white, and night lights and I'm not sure.of a good schedule

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Yea the light has a timer thankfully. How long so you leave your lights.on? The light I have had blue, white, and night lights and I'm not sure.of a good schedule

My lights have ramping features and timers but they stay at max intensity for 6 hours. I would say 8 is a good starting point for your light setup but until you have corals you don't need to worry about photoperiod. The amount of time you leave your lights on will affect how fast algae grows if you have nutrient issues at some point though, so just keep that in mind.