Here against my will.

[mike550]

@PPPPPP42 welcome to R2R! Its great that you‘re getting into reefing with wide and you‘ll find that this can become very relaxing over time. I’ve been at this around six months and finally feel like I’m getting a sense of things. It takes time.

To your point about facts, you’ll see that this group has a lot of people willing to help, and their opinions will differ. My suggestion is that you take in as much data and facts as you can and then use other people’s opinions and experiences to help you figure out the best approach for you.

 

[muzikalmatt]

As far as the building on glass instead of sand, I intend to fix that. Some things didn't get set up right because I had "I want it like this" from over my shoulder during setup and didn't have time to really get everything set perfect.
I will try to find a way to put something solid under it on the glass so as to leave the gobis their little hiding hole or they will have a fit trying to relocate with territorial damsels all over the place.

You should definitely get your rock directly on the bottom glass and not supported by the sand otherwise any shift in the sandbed could cause a collapse. If you're worried about the gobies having adequate home space under the rockwork I highly recommend getting a pistol shrimp to pair with them. The shrimp will excavate burrows underneath the rockwork for itself and the gobies to live in. It's an amazing symbiotic relationship and one my favorite things to watch in my tank.

Welcome to R2R by the way! It looks like you've done your homework and are going out of your way to make sure your wife is successful and the animals are well taken care of.

 

[PPPPPP42]

I followed some advice and now both powerheads are in the front of the tank and pointed straight at each other as close to the surface as they can be without drawing air.
That eliminated the rotating current that was going around the edges with sort of a random swirl back and forth and made it even more random around the tank.
For an idea of powerhead power the two heads flows hitting each other in the top middle of the tank push off so hard than I now have a bare spot on the bottom front middle of the tank.
I see people with 75 gallon tanks using head this big or bigger but they must have better controllers that can do variable power but at lower limits or something. I am testing the random power on both of them with this config but it seems like the fish are getting sloshed around a fair bit over most of the tank which might bother them after awhile. There is a low power night mode but it uses light sensors on the controller which is in the cabinet so not really an option.
I think I should have bought better powerheads with full timer and power controls that are all linked together.
Its two of these:

 

[Dolelo96]

Welcome to the R2R family! Loved your intro. This is definitely the place to come for information. I don’t think theres anything you can’t find an answer to here. You may want to check out “BRSTV“. Bulk Reef Supply is an online retailer of all things reef. They have videos on just about anything to do with reefing.. starting a tank, how to’s, equipment reviews, comparisons, and more I’m sure I’m leaving out. Check out R2R’s equipment forums too. Sometimes it’s better to post your questions in the specific forum that applies to what info your seeking. I had 2 Ecotech MP10’s on my 40 gallon. I was very lucky, because my husband told me to get “everything I needed”. I don’t think he realized my reefing would outdo his hunting. They’re expensive, but I still upgraded to their bigger brother, MP40’s, on my current tank. I liked the different ways to program them, you can run them independently or set them up as a master/slave, create waves or mimic a reef, etc. There are other great power heads too. As others have said, it just depends on what you think is best for you.
here’s a link to BRSTV..

Bulk Reef Supply

You want a successful saltwater aquarium from the start; We want to help you keep it thriving for years to come. BRStv gives you tools and easy to understand...

www.youtube.com

So glad your here. Your little ones are going to love watching the tank. My daughter loves it. Just make sure they don’t try to “feed” the cute fishies.

 

[Dragon52]

 

[Snuggs]

Welcome. I must chime in I am the wife who was going to do this! I did! I haul the buckets do the testing scrape the algae etc. AND I LOVE IT.

my hubby is an environmental engineer. Specializing in water quality. He is no help

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

Welcome. I must chime in I am the wife who was going to do this! I did! I haul the buckets do the testing scrape the algae etc. AND I LOVE IT.

my hubby is an environmental engineer. Specializing in water quality. He is no help

Lol, now this is interesting

 

[Snuggs]

Lol, now this is interesting

I am a five foot tall 103 lb middle aged grandma! Still a sponge for knowledge

 

[LiveWire]

Welcome to the REEF!!

 

[BeejReef]

Microscope purchase in the first month. That's hardcore!

 

[PPPPPP42]

It was a good deal on what seems to be a well optioned (for the price) and pretty good quality (for the price) microscope.
Since I have no clue what I was even buying and just picked out key features people wanted (like 3d stage) from microscope threads I'm not even really able to rate it compared to other things. Some neat features I didn't even know I was getting (though they probably are all listed) like the little stop down lever like a camera lens that greatly improves depth of field, super handy feature (probably common but what do I know).
Picked up a big pack of glass slides and cover slips and it all just arrived. Played with it a bit and it seems to work fine but the tank is dark already and I don't want to wake the fish up and flail around in there looking for stuff to look at. Maybe tomorrow.

40X-1000X LED Monocular Compound Microscope with 3D Stage & Reversed Nosepiece

Four widefield magnification settings: 40X, 100X, 400X, 1000XProfessional 30 degree inclined 360 degree swiveling monocular headSturdy framework with 3-D double layer mechanical stage with coaxial coarse & fine focusingAbbe condenser, iris diaphragm and color filterPowerful single bulb LED...

www.amscope.com

In other news I picked up several digital temp meters one mercury thermometer to suction cup inside the tank an api phosphate test kit because we didn't have a kit for that and I want to make sure its above zero but not sneaking up somehow, and a hanna digital DKH meter because it seems my wife was having trouble with the red sea alk test (it may be super low but we are not sure) and the stupid heater was reading 79 but putting out like 83.5 according to the new gauges.
I hadn't really been keeping up on the numbers since my wife was doing all that.
Stupid me bought a cute lawnmower blenny that she liked without being properly prepared and I think either the temp or possibly alkalinity or maybe even just one of those stupid damsels stressing it while I wasn't looking caused it to die in a day and half. It was perfectly healthy before hand and eating algae but never stopped fast breathing. So I think we put it into shock and it just never recovered. I am very annoyed with myself for such obviously avoidable incompetence.
Now I will very much hyper over analyze ever aspect of this.
There will be an SQ-520 par meter on my list of purchases before I buy one more speck of coral for example.
Otherwise the other fish are healthy and the GSP on the overflow looks healthy (fully extended with neon green and white colors) and may even be growing already.

 

[Terri Caton]

Women are awesome!

Sounds like a typical build. Lol.
Welcome!

 

[PPPPPP42]

Amscope is going to have to get exchanged or repaired or something. It has a black fuzzy blob that shows up when you stop it down all the way with the 40x and even just most of the way with the 100x which is too big a deal to ignore. I determined its on or in the prism itself and first the rocket blower and then Q-tips wont even budge it. My guess is a micro defect in the prism itself since I can't see a thing just looking at it but there is the tiniest bubble like shimmer in one spot if you hold it just right to a light.
Either way that totally sucks because looking at Amscopes warranty you have to pay shipping both ways.
Despite it showing its Chinese manufacturing in several noticeable ways , at that price I would have been happy with it, at what will probably end up being at least $40 more, not so much.

On the bright side I did get a pic of the Algae. Looks like 2 different types of diatoms though I could have sworn I saw at least one example of both types moving, but it could have just been fluid moving it as the 100x kept bumping the cover slip if I focused too far (super annoying).

EDIT: You can see the black blob slightly above and right of center. It get much worse when fully stopped down.