First Timer 4G Orange and Green Mixed Reef

afishbestservedcold

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Hi all!

Sorry I'm a little late on the build post, tank has been going for a little under 2 months now!

I have been keeping freshwater tanks for about 15 years. After the unfortunate demise of a "freshwater" tophat blenny in my brackish experiment, RIP Penny the Blenny, I saw the light and decided to go full salt! So I emptied my 4G and said lets go for broke - here is the tank:

Setup is:

10" 4G cube glass tank, cobalt aquatics?
Dennerle Corner filter
I was running the Hydor Rotating flo valve until this week when I picked up some LPS
Heater is a Lifegard 50W Preset - feel free to ask why
Kessil A80, I keep it about 60% color, 60% intensity
Hydor Bottle Top ATO


In the Tank:

DSB kinda, its about 4" in the back and slopes down to 1"
Live Rock
1 Pom Pom Crab
1 Randall's Pistol Shrimp
1 Rainford's Goby (classic noob mistake, LFS/Liveaquaria said easy, learned the truth 10 minutes after getting him home....ik, its a 4g, kill me with your kindness)

2 Astrea snails
1 Cerith snail
1 Trochus snail
2 electric blue hermits
1 limpet, not sure what species
copepods, tigers + cyclops + randos

Corals:

Dont really know! I know the common or genus name of each one but no specific species and would appreciate those IDs.
2 mushrooms, a rhodactis and the orange one
4 zoas (if someone could ID any of these as palythoa Id like to remove them)
Clove polyp
organ pipe
meteor/cypheastrea
chalice
GSP


I cycled the tank for the first 3 weeks with an enormous ball of macroalgae in it, now reduced to the little thing of chaeto in mesh. I've seen people bashing macros and I really think it helped cycle the tank in a short time. As a freshwater guy who hasn't done a wc in 2+years, it was hard to wait! Last week LFS tested my water and params were:

Salinity 1.026 - now probably down to 1.025
AIK - 10.9
Mg - 1500
Ca - 500
No3 - <2 ppm

Hope y'all like it so far and would love any feedback/tips! 20201005_171527.jpg 20201005_171532.jpg 20201005_171501.jpg 20201005_171521.jpg 20201005_171544.jpg 20201005_171610.jpg 20201001_181232.jpg 20201005_171514.jpg
 
some updates!

1. Got some new corals (a monti and ultra orange zoa are on the left) and got rid of a few, I am trying to keep them orange/green/pink
2. Got an awesome Porcelain crab and LFS told me it would host on a bubble anemone (which they offered to sell me for a mere $600!!)
3. Haggled for an orange BTA for $90 at another LFS
4. Porcelain crab is hosting on the BTA!
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