Cover noted, my concern with a cover is my lighting and my corals. I have 2t5s, and vertex LEDs. I'm trying a birds nest frag and so far after a week it's still doing ok. Other corals are lps, leathers and mushrooms. If I put a cover on, what would be best to minimize effects on lighting in the tank.

Fish list looks like this based on suggestions:
Cardinal
Chromis
Royal gramma
2 clowns
Blenny - not sure what though, I like the Midas blennys...
Flame hawkfish....maybe
Candy hogfish...maybe

Candy hogfish is a wrasse btw:wink:....I also have a medium sized flame hawk with shrimp with no issues(yet).....I think all fish have the potential to jump.....I know people that have had triggers, angels(myself included), lionfish, jump......wrasses, gobies and blennies seem to have an incredibly strong "bolt" instinct and are an extreme flight risk........ If you make a top out of aluminum window screen frame and use bird screen, you will have very little light loss......this relatively easy to make top will open you up to a whole lot more fish to choose from....

fairy wrasses, flasher wrasses, mystery wrasses.....Halichoeres family of wrasses are a beautiful group of fish, reef safe with caution(possibility of feather dusters and shrimp), sand bed required....they have the added bonus of pest control

the gramma family are great little fishes.....Im also partial to my assessors.......dottybacks are great little fish, but can be a touch agressive

I love my dottyback but i hate having to consider its attitude for every future "oh look its shiney, I want" thought i ever have.

Get some clear 1/4" mesh and make a cover for the tank. It won't block the light or limit you on the type of fish you can keep.

I have 2 hawkfish with 5 shrimp. Never had a issue but the fish were added after.

A candied hog is a nice fish but be aware that when they grow up they can be aggressive and take out shrimp

Going to look at fairy wrasses rather than the hogfish, leaning towards the Midas blenny.

I had a dotty back as well...would have to be the last fish in, it got aggressive and starting picking at one of the cardinals. Think I will stay away from another one tho.

I def think I'm going to add the flame. They are such cool looking fish! I have time to get a cover done before adding potential jumpers....

There's a good link on Bulk Reef Supply's website on how to make a cover out of netting...check it out and good luck!!

If you do get a cover, you could look at getting a type of jawfish or goby/pistol shrimp pair.

I picked up a bicolor blenny today! He's got really cool markings, almost light blue on the front and whitish on the orange in the back! He's still acclimating for another 20 mins or so! So good to have a fish back in the tank. Cardinal will go in on Sunday, chromis I'm going to see if I can treat the fuzzy spot under it's fin before putting back in.

Well I lost the chromis this week, he wasn't looking good on wednesday, came home from work thursday and all we found of him was his fin.

Today I picked up a couple of sebae clowns, love these guys. Also added a mini carpet anenome, looks like a mushroom right now, but pretty cool!

Tank is really starting to look good, algae is disappearing, sand looks better! Really loving my tank right now!!