This is my 32 biocube led. 15 months old. First off, I changed the lights to steves to support the SPS on top. Then I changed the filter to intank refugium and intank media tray, added a MP40 and changed the return pump to a stronger one.
I started with toadstool (got big so I booted him), hollywood stunner (got tired of him so booted him), kenya tree (still have some but got out most of them (nuisance spreads everywhere), convict mushrooms (still like those but put in back bottom to get them out of the way), grandis palythoa colony and green paly colony (they melted away when I blasted them with Part 2, not a big loss). Pulsing xenia and clove polyps (still have them for now-like them but shading out my zoanthids, probably getting the boot)
Fish: started with ocellaris clown whilst cycling. After 3 month cycle: royal gramma (died after a month), black bar chromis jumped into filter and died, clown wrasse (died within a week), high fin goby and pistol shrimp (still have the goby, had to feed the pistol shrimp to the fish cause he kept moving sand and burying corals) . Clean up crew: 10 small blue leg hermits, turbo snails, cerith snails, margarita snails, emerald crabs, cleaner shrimp, 3 peppermint shrimp, lawnmower blenny (now that I have zero algae for them to eat, aiptasia eradicated, most of the snails died and the emerald crabs are eating my blue kiss and rasta zoas (if I could catch them I would eat them!), (the peppermint shrimp got eaten by predators-not sure which ones), cleaner shrimp is still ruling the roost.
After 8 months or so: Corals: Acan lords (having limited success), candy canes (started with 4, now it is huge and in the center of the front of the tank), green hairy mushrooms (one into 2), common hammer (2 into 5 heads), dragon soul goniastrea dong great, favia growing slow but happy, gorgonian (gonna get the boot), green star polyps (look cool but big mistake), blue clove polyps (again cool but big mistake), forest fire mushrooms (got huge and one turned to 2 and splitting), zoanthids (struggling with shade issues and hungry emerald crabs, sun corals (got tired of feeding them daily (died), SPS corals from jason fox but cant remember the names - they went from 1" to what you see in the pic very fast, and then there are the torches my favorite but they sting anything within reach and the indo's have a long reach - 6". Of those I have todds (bought on R2R), aussie golds (bought one from calikid and the other from extreme), indo gold (calikid), what was sold to reefer on R2R as holy grail but is some sort of dragon soul (love it), black torch (AquaSD), purple torches with green tips (R2R), purple torch with blue tips (R2R), purple torch with yellow tips (tropical fish bowl in Lafayette, LA). All torches increasing in size and heads except the gold aussie with blue tips.
Fish after 8 months: another clown to keep the first company (white), sapphire damsel to eat pests, purple dartfish for granddaughter, 2 bengali cardinal fish, coral beauty angel (had to but might be a mistake, nips on corals).
Hope this helps you get kicked off.
There are easy soft corals and inverts you can start with but be advised that some grow and take over the tank fast making it hard to upgrade your reef. As you spend the big bucks for what you really want, it is disappointing to have the nearly free ones be responsible for the death of your favorites. It is even more disappointing to have a $9.00 crab eat $500.00 meal in a couple of days because you finally got rid of the green hair algae, removing his diet! Guy at my LFS said "you can't blame him, what would you do?"....so I'm taking his advice and following suit to catch and eat them!
