How I'm not going to lose interest....

[justahobby]

I am thinking the fuge will contain: One inch of sugar fine sandbed, a small pile of coral rubble stacked up against the rear corners, and Cheatomorpha alga.

No DSB? Again, that sounds like what I will be aiming for... LOTS of Chaeto. The more the merrier.

My favorite presenter at DFWMas was Joe Yaiullo, who set up a 20,000g reef tank in NY and has been maintaining it for years. One of his big messages in the end was that he had to work through so many issues with this system because it was in the public and he did not have the option of just tearing it all down and starting over. He talked about how beneficial the process of working through these issues is and how we are too quick as hobbyists to start over when things go wrong. Really good stuff.

Agreed. In John's (Firewater) case it was different in that he had to made changes that required emptying out the tank to remove the foam background. My case is recognizing my limitations and working around them. When my tank was FOWLRGHA (that's fish only w/ liverock and green hair algae) I dedicated time every single day with pruning, WC's, and reduced feedings. It was a bonding time that I enjoyed. I didn't stress back then the tank would be overtaken (it already was ). But I made it through it and ended up with a gorgeous tank.