Hi, im starting my first log of my tank. I started on janurary 1st of this year (clever date for tracking tank's age eh?). I started with a 55g tank given to me by a friend who had used it for some time (maybe 3 years) as a freshwater tank. I did a complete cleaning, as it was one of the dirtiest things ive ever seen (it had bee down and not cleaned for 6 months). I've made many mistakes over the liftime of this tank. Main reason for this is I am 16 years old and have a job that pays 50-60 dollars a week (working one day). I originaly relied on knowledge from freshwater, and my father who did saltwater in the 80's. I started the tank with an undergravel filter run by two of the junkiest powerheads I have ever seen (my first money "saving" mistake). I also used a freshwater mechanical and carbon filter. I used one bag of live sand and crushed coral (another thing i regret). I never washed the sand, and spent a few days frustrated with cloudy water, until i broke the whole thing down and washed the sand. I then bought 25 lbs of live rock and let the system run, until i bought 3 damsels to cycle it, and i still cant get rid of them. After getting online i learned of alot of the mistakes i made and slowely upgraded, I tried making a diy skimmer, which turned out to be just and expensive pvc container of air and water. I then added a sump and ditched the undergravel. I now have a seaclone skimmer powered by a rio pump. It works okay but its on the lower end of the list of things to be replaced. I have i trickle filter with bioballs and some macro algea and some rubble rock down there in the 20g sump with a 27 watt pc lighting (actualy a desk lamp). The return is also a rio, some higher gph model. I now have two aquaclear powerheads, one with a Hydor Flo on it. Im considering removing everything from the trickle filter, and mayber even removing it. I now have 125lbs of rock 75 of it starting as base rock. I have a 2x65 pc light and a 175 watt mh I found at a flea market for 15 dollars, in a custom pendat made from mdf and aluminum for a cheap reflector. The mh is in the center of the tank, so thats where all the light demanding corals are. I have 2 clowns and those 3 stupid damsels i cant get rid of. For corals I have a few green mushrooms which spread from a rock i bought from an lfs near my dad's work, 1 frag of zoos from Trop., 2 frags of xenia which i fragged once. And most recently i got 1 frag of what i thought was hammerhead, but cant identify, and green star polyps. So Im going to get some pics later and probably edit this first post, but in hopes of not loosing all this typing by some odd occurance Im going to ask for any suggestions. Advice and questions are welcome.