Am i on the correct path?

I would talk to John at reefcleaners.org on the CuC. He is the hands down professional and God of CuC. I would say that my CuC is significantly larger than yours. 1-2 dozen assorted crabs, 100+ assorted snails. Peredhil hasa big CuC as well. I would say that he and I are on the high side, but yours is on the low side. John will set you up.

Hope I am helpin'
M

 

BTW -- Agree your flow should be fine and lights to 8 with some natural sun.

M

 

Everything is looking good! Sorry to hear about the crab "sicle"...sorry, bad joke.

Your bio load is very low, so I would probably wait a little longer to add more to your CUC, but agree with everyone else, go to reefcleaners.org and fill out the custom CUC e-mail. John will let you know what you need based on your bio load and also based on what you intend to put in the tank.

The brown stuff is a diatom bloom and pretty much everyone goes through this. As MMcDonald said, it is very normal. It will start to look really bad and then one day, you will look and it will be gone. Continue to be patient, you are doing a great job so far! Use this time to research and plan what you would like to put in the tank and develop a stocking plan. One of the best things I did when starting was to create a wish list of fish and corals and then start researching their needs. That was part of the fun of starting a new tank. A lot of what I originally wanted was eliminated. Then I was able to realistically begin stocking in the right order (most peaceful fish first and most aggressive last)

Keep up the good work!