Cali Kid Corals

Eric's 5ft 90g Truvu mix

Hi All,
It's been 3 and a half months since I setup the tank, finally will start posting my tank journey
I had a 20 and a 60G reef tank about 15+ years ago, now just coming back to this hobby.
My goal is to initially get back into the hobby without breaking the bank. Try to get some used/budget equipment , Once regain more knowledge experience, will redo it in a few years.
I found a guy on fb selling a 5 ft truvu with wetdry setup , also comes with a container of dry rock

Equipment:
5 ft truvu ( i think maybe around 100G)
wetdry filter ( replaced bio ball with marinepure brick)
return pump ( a fossil RIO 1700 comes with the tank, runs great without any issue)
skimmer (Aquamaxx ConeS CO-1 In-Sump Protein Skimmer)
Lights ( 2 x nicrew 150W with controller)
80 lbs (2 bags of caribsea live sand)
live rocks ( got a piece from fish doctor, 2 piece from craigslist, 2 piece artificial from lucky ocean, remaining ones are dry rocks that comes from the tank)
bacteria to cycle the tank ( fritz turbostart 900)
heater (eheim 300W)
wavemaker ( budget one from amazon)
I'm suprised I'm able to fully cycle the tank in 9 days, and things are amazingly stable considering this young age of the tank. for fish, i only lost 1 due to it got jumped out.

Maroon clown ( 10th day)
Coral Beauty ( 3rd week)
Blue Tang (about 1 month and a half about)
2 x diamond watchman goby (2 months 3rd week about)
yellow watchman goby (close to 2 month mark)
foxface (2.5 months)
cleaner shrimp ( 3rd week)
tiger pistol shrimp (3 months)
red fire shrimp ( 3 months and a week)
tiny junvenile emperor angel about 1.25 inch( I know they're not consider reef safe, but I did some research I know some people had success with it, they might pick on certain coral depends on luck, juvenile had better chance), 3 days ago, still in acclimation box, If there's only 1 fish I could keep, this is the one, I don't know why but I just love the emperor angel
Green Nepthea( Pay it forward from @Ghost)
GBTA , 2 purchased from facebook marketplace and 1 from Peetajai here (saving from bucket life if i remember correctly) , I know people say anamone nees a mature tank, but suprisingly all 3 are doing great, 1 has splitted up and became 4
Elegance ( did great for 1.5 months , then start shrinking and gone)
assorted mushrooms
Couple Hammer Coral (purchased from @Alexx here) 3 head , and 2 x 2 head.
Brain coral
GSP and xenia ( free from facebook group)
WWC Madman Austeria and Red Orange Millipora , got these at the tank around a month mark,Madman is doing great, I notice last 2 weeks the base really thickens up and seems really starting to grow, Millipora is dead (starting to fade after it fell off from the rock overnight, not sure if my tank is not ready or because of this)
Electric Eye Deep Water Acro small frag ( been in the tank for about 2.5 months, didn't notice any growth until this week, the base looks like starting to grow)
Acan small frag
Candy Cane small frag
gonipora small frag
Aussie Electric Strawberry Shortcake Acropora small frag
Purple Puddle Acro small frag
2 zoa frag
a few unknown

Problem encounter:
Ugly stage/cyano?? (dose microbacter 7 and clean) now got a lot better
high phosphate( not sure if it's due to the dry rock), been using phosguard to maintain the stability of it. I think still high but if it's stable I'm leaving it or lowering it slowly week by week.
lost a few frags in early stage due to covered by cyano/algae .
Elegance for some reason it just keep shrinking and died. Not sure really why, but I think a lof of people experience this too
I need to learn how to take picture, maybe a better cell phone and improve some photography skill
Upcoming future problem:
Will see how the emperor angel does, fingers cross, but I think candy cane/brain/zoa/acan will be at risk. I heard ppl have success with SPS/hammer/frogspawn/torch/gonipora/soft coral

Any advice feedback are welcome, especially on emperor angel in reef tank , or anyone got free corals to a newbie to fill lot of empty space in the tank would appreicate.
 

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If it’s 6ft what are the rest of the dimension’s? At 6ft it’s got to be at least 150-180 unless it is very skinny or short.
G
 
We have the same TruVu, but the reef-ready version, so it's def 90g (maybe a couple more without the overflow).

They kept an emperor angel in the outside reef at the Waikiki aquarium, but I remember that being dominated by SPS and certain soft corals. This is a recent photo after it passed after like 20+ years in the tank, but pretty close to how it looked before. Note the Gigas clam in a crate to protect it:

PXL_20221224_020724504.jpg


Why isn't your heater in your sump? You run the risk of it cracking if a rock hits it.

For the return pump, you could go with an ecotech vectra (pricey) or a sicce syncra.
 
Tank is 8 months old now. I can tell things starting to stabilize and more growth
First 6 months is trying to keep things alive, but still lost a few.
 
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