Well I've made a few changes to the system as you can see. I put in a 10 gallon sump and moved my heater and skimmer down there. I also got a new T5 96 watt 4 bulb fixture. It's a cheap one but I'm hoping for the next 6 months or so it'll keep me going. It was actually cheaper than replacing the bulbs in my PC fixture and I thought it might even be better. I also made a pvc return line for my pump and a diy pvc overflow that I saw online and it seems to be working pretty well....I made sure to drill some holes in the side of my return in case of a power outage or a pump fail so it will stop the back siphon and I attached an airline tube with a lift pump to the overflow so I will hopefully never lose the siphon...I tested both and they are working for now so I'm gonna keep an eye on it and hope for the best. I also didn't use any baffles so i could get more water volume out of such a little sump and I don't have any bubbles at all in my dt. Everything seems to be doing good so on with the pictures!
FTS with new Lights
with just the actinics on...
New T5 light...I got this off ebay for $70 w/ shipping, I'm not sure on the brand but it seems to be a solid fixture...I've heard the oddyssea bulbs it came with aren't great but they have really good color and my corals don't seem to be doing any worse so hopefully they'll start to respond...
My diy pvc overflow...
New Sump...filled with about 9 gallons...
I have my return pump, heater, thermometer, skimmer and a grow light....
I kind of like how the return comes out right next to my skimmer pump...I think thats about as close to plumbing directly into the skimmer as I can get without actually doing it...
My frogspawn and one orange zoanthid polyp...I can already see the zoanthid has opened up more!
and under actinic...
My mushrooms, some green zoanthid, and a little gsp if you can see it....
and the actinic shot...