Thanks, my brother.
I still didn't order lamps, I was waiting for you to weigh in.
My hair algae bloom was due to moving, plus I let my ro/di unit lay around for a couple months all full of water and it wrecked the membrane. All I did was order new guts for it and replace 60 gallons of water (so far) and my hair algae problem is gone.
The brown diatom goo is almost history, too.
I talked to Lisa and we figured we'd get all the bulbs, then keep the six that are still fine. It makes sense since we have a fresh start on everything. If I have a burnout, I'll just replace it with one of the lamps I put in storage, I figure.
I'm absolutely amazed at what my corals are doing now that I've righted all my screwups. My tongue coral is ready to crawl out the tank. It's HUGE. Everything else is just going wild. If I improve the lighting, it'll only get better.
My new glass top is coming today, too. It'll replace the one I broke.
So all is well in fish land once again.
Thanks for all the help, Brad. I genuinely do appreciate your input and your knowledge, it means a lot to me. It helps to know how it used to be done, and why. The "why" is the biggest part. If I know why I'm doing what I'm doing, I can make anything work. You're where I get my "why?"