In general can one of you or both list what I should do or tell me if I should just restart. I'm considering a larger tank. Need advice.
There is way to much information to post but I will try and give you some guidelines.
Step 1: Read, read and read some more. If you are wondering about what fish to buy look it up online check minimum gallon requirements, dietary needs, sensitivity and compatibility with other livestock.
Step 2: after reading about all the various livestock, equipment and how it all works, you will need to decide what type of livestock you wish to keep.
-Typically as a beginner I would say you are going to want to stick with soft corals; particularly mushrooms, leathers zoanthids, green star polyps and the like. However in my opinion you are a substantial time frame away from being able to keep corals (don't be discouraged but look at this as a learning process)
Step 3: make your purchases wisely, tank size (bigger is better but remember bigger = more $$ and more physical work) lighting is crucial to corals, the different types you purchases will require different types of lighting or at least different placement.
Step 4: be patient don't stress and do more research.
This is what I would do if I were you and did not want to start over:
- A skimmer is an essential part of the aquarium you will want a good one and one that works (stay far away from seaclone).
If I were you I would A: get rid of the tang, B: not purchase any additional livestock, C: combat the algae on all fronts: increase flow, increase water changes, using RODI water only (unless you have dinoflagellates which it doesn't sound like you do), get a GFO and carbon reactor from bulk reef supply (they have a dual reactor), watch what I feed and how I feed the livestock, get rid of the filter sock unless you clean it at least 1x per week, also perform a 3 day lights out where you keep your lights off for 3 days and try to minimize and indirect ambient light from entering the tank. This will really help kill off the algae.
