Sorry for the lack of updates, time for this build to start moving again.
Tank's been running for around 5 months. had a mild cycle of diatoms and cyano which was less pronounced on the rocks and ceramics and mostly on the sand bed. it could either be related to the lack of flow when I started the tank or tot he fact that the sand was old sand from my 150 G which was only rinsed so maybe things died in it and were decaying feeding the bloom.
anyway here's how the tank looked at it's worst.
I chose to let the cycle happen and didn't syphon or stire the sand bed, I did get some diatomes on the rocks and ceramics as well but they were rather limited. I had been dosing vodka so that could have contributed to the blooms. few weeks later I had noticeable nitrates and phosphates and they kept climbing so I added a PO4 reactor and upped my vodka which dropped things to where I want.
My underrated skimmer seems to be a very decent job pulling this much junk in 2-3 days
Eventually I noticed my cyano worsen with the added vodka doses so I syphoned my cyano from the sand and shut my lights for 3 days which worked great. currently I'm only getting some diatoms in areas of low flow which should be solved as I add more powerheads soon.
Tank cleared up to this after the lights out.
couple of months back I added a second batch of fish:
Leapard wrass (Macropharyngodon Ornatus) that I got from holland
Gramma Loretto from holland as well.
1 Pseudochromis fridmani I found in dubai, Still looking for a second one to add
Couple of Lubboks fairy wrass (Cirrhilabrus lubbocki) they were harrassed by my whip fin wrass but not that severly and one of them didn't make it. making it the first fatality in this tank)