New to hobby. Trying a blacked out in tank refugium.

Aloha everyone,
Got a 29g tank started and wanted to get some pointers on my setup. Its been running for 22 days now and doing pretty good. I use free filtered ocean water do frequent water changes. Topped off with distilled water. Heres a breakdown of the system:
-20lb aragalive fiji pink
-gonna add 20lb tahiti moon sand for the salt pepper look tomorrow
-15lb live rock some decor corals (curing more live rock at the moment/ using aquacultured live rock from moloka'i, HI)
-hydor slim skim skimmer
-aquaclear 50
-maxijet 400
-koralia nano 425
-custom glass lid to fit protruding skimmer
-marineland dbl bright LED (gonna sell it and get the kessil a150w ocean blue-- rookie mistake! I shoulda went balls deep and went for the kessil to start)

-7 hermits
-big cowrie snail
-3 other snails idk maybe turbo?
-1 blue damsel
-2 false clowns
- feather duster
-just found a shrimp in there today

Just bought the CPR in tank refugium and JBJ nano-glo refugium light. I plan on blacking out the three sides of the refugium and installing it on the right side of my tank. The clear side will recieve light from the nanoglo. Hopefully no light will penetrate the in tank refugium and disturb the tank inhabitants when main lights are off. I'll be adding sand from tank, small peice live rock, caeto algae, and copepods in the fuge. Im hoping for a self sufficient food supply for my tank as the pods flow outa the fuge.

Still cant wait to get new light. Let me know what you guys think of my setup and blacked out fuge idea. Is it even necessary to black it out? Sorry pictures will be coming shortly as soon as i finish it and add new rock.

Aloha
Dustin

 

Looking good! I don't think you'll need to black it out, honestly I don't think the light will bother your tank at night and over time the sides will eventually become covered with coralline and other types of algaes.
The damsel might become a little aggressive, not sure but that's what I've heard.

I too have a 29g and I love it. I have a pistol goby/shirmp duo, a occy clown(or false perc.), a 6line, a flametail blenny, a cleaner shrimp, and i too have a cowrie snail.

I would wait a few months before really adding any corals - and try to have the Fuge up and running by that point as well. Just want to make sure you're tank is filtering itself well enough to not be able to detect ammonia or nitrites.

Spend a lot of time getting the rock work the way you want it and then LEAVE IT. One of my big rookie mistakes was that I kept constantly rearranging my rock work to a way that I liked it, and this really stressed out my corals and fish. (A tip for stacking rocks is to try either placing small pieces of PVC pipe underneath or using smaller rocks to hold up the bigger rocks. This way water flow moves under the rocks as well as to the sides and over top flushing out detritus) Just make sure it's all avalanche proof because your Cowrie Snail WILL jam his way through anything he can.