Higher Thinking

I'd check out some wrasses. You could find a couple really cool additions.

Moved it to general for ya.

Yeah, you'd have better luck with a handful of small bristle nose plecos. Not only can you get better looking ones, but the very large plecos don't really even eat algae that well.

Unfortunately with that humuhumu fish you won't be able to get any hermit crabs and small snails. You may get by with some turbo snails, but it'll still try and flip them over and eat them. To be honest I'd consider ditching those canister filters in lieu of some other kind of filtration. HOB refugium is one option and/or HOB skimmer. I suppose you could add some good media in the canisters to reduce your phosphate levels. And just make sure to not overfeed. Additional nutrients can only come from dirty top off water or your food. Make sure neither is adding unnecessary phosphates and nitrites.

I'm assuming suspending from the ceiling is a no go?

Looking good!

Sounds like you have a great attitude to find the long term success. Sometimes you gotta roll with the punches. If you can do that and press on, you'll be able to make some progress. You mentioned wanting to keep some torches and frog spawn. What's your setup like? Sump? Protein skimmer? How are you with water changes, testing, and dosing? The Trident and DOS should certainly introduce a new arena of stability you may not have experienced before, but I'd still recommend having a real thorough understanding of parameters (what they should be, why, how best to maintain, etc.). 5 years in the hobby means you have to have some level of patience, or at least commitment. Post up any questions. Welcome to the club!

Dang, that's wild!

Looks real good! Excellent coral layout.

I always ponder getting a generator, but can never pull the trigger. Luckily, the power lines in our neighborhood are all underground. That means we only lose power when the actual substation has issues. I think in the last 6 years we went without power for maybe a couple hours once or twice. It's extremely unheard of so I can't bring myself to getting a unit.... Still tempted though.

I would just check in with a glass shop for some scrap. That'll be your easiest avenue.

Unfortunately, I'm not really versed in that. You could probably message those guys and ask them some questions.

We have a sponsor on here, Air, Water, Ice. They make solid and reliable units.

Great progress!

I think with so many schools shut down, unfortunately we've lost a couple systems. That being said, I feel like most of these "donation events" typically involve offloading a bunch of unusable items. At least that is what history has shown.

Looking good, man!

Glad to hear things are slowly headed in the right direction. I wish I could offer some insight, but this is admittedly not an area I'm an expert in. It does seem like you've received some solid feedback.

I have one. PM sent.

Great progress. You've been pretty consistent in making some gains on this. Looks great!

Maybe you're already doing something else, but you're going to run into issues when you try and get 8 cords through those little grommets. The 8 cords themselves will fit, but you'll have a hard time putting all the plugs through. I just hooked my board up and made a similar mistake. So I just cut in an additional hole. I also cut the cap part to allow more cords and still close off any remaining space. Looks good, though!

Dang that sounds like a few too many issues than you should be running into with a piece of equipment that is so expensive. Sucks about Bill... He always seemed like a chill dude from his videos, albeit a bit mad-scientisty.

What are your thoughts on the Aquarium Engineering carx?

Solid and consistent progress! Excellent job!

That's pretty wild the pH goes that high. I have a small 20 gallon tank at my work. Every now and then when I'm behind on top off, once I get water and kalk filled back up, it pumps kalk until I can't even see in the tank. I always knew I was spiking pH and alk, but never imagined it could be going THAT high. I wonder how my experiences (I end up doing it monthly, probably more) compare to what you did....🤔🤔

Jeff is the man! Happy birthday and thanks for always going above and beyond with extra effort.