Reefinny that is awesome!
I'm glad my tank could help your wife visualize what all that labor can achieve.
Believe me, you want to set it up right from the beginning!
You have to have every piece of equipment in place BEFORE you put water in.
I spent months collecting all the pieces that would save me down the road.
You HAVE to start with:
The right lights WITH new bulbs
A properly designed and sized sump with refugium
A skimmer that's rated for at least three times your water volume and of a nice brand
A phosban and carbon reactor
An aquarium controller
A properly sized heater
An RO/DI unit
Top off system of some kind
Preferably a dosing pump set with at least three pumps
And everything else is whatever you want. If you don't start with those main things you will have to get them later on only after massive failure in your tank.
Mine hasn't been running even a year yet and I can have everything in there ONLY Bc of my awesome equipment.
The only corals I have ever lost which is very few was Bc I didn't have a phosban reactor. That was the one piece I didn't start with and it cost me almost $200 in coral in ONE NIGHT. The reactor and pump was only $90.
For every piece of equipment that you can't afford right now, it will cost you at least double in livestock loss at some point later on.
I have spent $1,473.72 on equipment for this tank alone so far.
But that's alright Bc it's keeping alive $2,152.00 worth of fish and sensitive corals.
Everyone I see that struggles in this hobby does so Bc they were not properly equipped to keep the tank alive when they filled it up.