Advice? New tank setup

Hello all! I've been mostly a lurker here off and on for a while and this is a great forum, thank you to all who make it happen!

Thanks to some members here I've been able to acquire and cobble together a setup that I've always wanted and need some advice in "finishing" the build (is it ever really finished? ).

Setup is a Biocube 29 with maxijet 1200 and DIY ATO in chamber 3, skimmer and DIY media rack with Acurel phosphate pad (using live rock transferred from previous tank that had algae problems) purigen elite and chemipure in chamber 2 (will be added when I get ready to stock), InTank water director and 150W heater in chamber 1.

Display area has moderate new oolite live sand bed with approximately 20 lbs. mix of live/used to be live rock, thermometer and will soon have a Jebao RW-4.

Hood has been retrofit with RapidLED DIY leds (12 white Cree stars, 12 royal blue Cree stars, 2 moonlight blues on separate non-dimming driver) and cooling fans with their own power supply. The leds are powered by MeanWell ELN 60-48D's (one for each color string) and are currently driven by manual dimming pots.

Tank has been running and cycling for about a week and ammonia and nitrate are coming down, nitrite is 0, ph 8.2, temp 77.8. Think the old live rock and new live sand have helped with a quick cycle. Transferred a scarlet hermit, two blue hermits and a bumblebee snail from old tank two days ago and they appear to be happier than ever to be in a 'clean' tank. Some bristle worms hitched a ride on the live rock from the old tank but I've always thought them to be helpful and haven't seemed to ever hurt anything. I only have one ocellaris clown in the old tank and he will be coming over when cycle is totally finished.

OK, sorry for the ramble, here is where I need advice/opinions.

I really would like to control the dimming of the leds automatically with the use of some type of controller. Right now I have no ability to ramp them up or down unless I do it manually and I can't stand the discharge flash when the timers turn off the power supplies (scares the hermits, too!). I also like the option of simulated cloud cover.
With the drivers that I have, I know I'll need analog 0-10v dimming and that limits my choices of control options.
What I can't decide is if I should:
a.) get a full-blown controller
b.) get a dedicated led controller (like the Storm with converter)
c.) just roll with what I've got and save the remaining budget money for live stock.

I eventually want corals (hence why I'm here!) but am in no great hurry as I want to do this right.

Remaining budget for the build is in the neighborhood of $200, so I know an Apex with dimming module is not possible right now (unless I can find a buyer for my old mower!) so I think my full controller options are ReefKeeper lite with ALC module or nothing.

I am handy with soldering and other mechanical tasks, but when it comes to programming (arduino-type stuff) and circuit building I am just not gifted in that skill or language, so please don't recommend a DIY controller build.

Feel free to chime in with opinions and options (if you managed to not get bored with the rambling) and thanks again for this forum!

 

Thanks for the input, everybody.

I'm still up in the air on which way to go, but may have to wait a bit. My maxijet has started leaking current into the tank so I just ordered a Sicce Syncra 1.0 for a replacement and that ate $50 pretty quick.

Might just ride out the summer as-is and see what the black friday deals look like.

 

Looks like I'm leaning toward a 'full-blown' controller. This weekend I had some time to regularly monitor my setup and found too many problems and variables in things like temperature and coordination/reliability between two mechanical timers and one digital dual-timer that threw my lighting schedule off and even failed to turn on my moonlights this morning. Also, manually unplugging the return and skimmer at feeding time, then plugging them back in with a delay so the skimmer doesn't flood is annoying.

Looks like I'll have to have a conversation with the war department to see if any budgetary monies can be spared (anybody need a decent 21" Toro mower with electric start?)

Here's some gratuitous shots of the setup. Any thoughts or recommendations appreciated! Again, I want to do this as close to 'right' as I can and have a setup that will grow anything that I or the kids like the look of!

FTS before the rw-4, with whites leds at roughly 60% and blue leds 80%

whites at about 30% and blues at 80ish.

Moonlights.

Chamber 3 and part of 2

Chamber 2 and 1

Question here, should chemipure be above or below the purigen? Is it ok to have both submerged (you can see waterline in chamber 2 right at the top of the chemipure bag)?

 

Update and some more advice needed!

Got the RKL (thanks, mattman319) installed and operational with the ALC module. After playing around and using this thing, I bet I wouldn't have neglected my old tanks nearly as bad if I'd had this before!

Added firefish, some more cerith snails and a tiger conch (algae vacuum!).

Parameters have been stable at (or close to) these numbers for a couple of weeks:
SG: 1.026
Temp: 79
Ammonia,Nitrite,Nitrate: 0 (may be 1ppm nitrate, but can't really be sure with color of API kit)
pH: 8.18 (day) 7.98 (night)
kH: 8.9
Ca: 380
P: 0 (Salifert)

Still fighting hair algae and I can only assume my rocks are and will be leaching for awhile and the P is getting taken up faster than it can get to my sampling jar. I've turned white lights off and put blues on at 30% for 6 hours to keep me and the fish happy.

Question I have is should I be adding some kalk to my top-off water to help nudge the Ca and alk up a little in prep for when I'm ready to add corals? I want to start with some hearty 'weed' species like gsp and pulsing xenia (maybe blue) before I add anything I'll cry over if it croaks. I don't foresee doing any sps (although some monti's are really attractive to me), but would like to have some zoas, hammers, frogspawn, yuma-type stuff.
Also, any thoughts on maybe running a nano reactor with gfo to accelerate the fight against the gha? I've already got a media basket with chemipure elite, purigen and accurel phosphate pad, but I could replace that with a reactor if that'd help.

Thanks!

By the way, I'm using Instant Ocean regular (purple bucket) right now for salt. Changing 5gal every week.

 

The IO regular is what I had left from old tanks, only have about 25 gallons worth left. I have read mixed reviews of the Reef Crystals (brown water, phosphates) so I was leery of using that stuff if I could stick with the regular IO and supplement what it doesn't provide.
Yes, I have a diy ATO consisting of a battery powered bait-box bubbler I had lying around wired to two float switches in chamber 3. Air line goes into a 5-gallon water jug that I got from Seascapes, air pressure in jug forces water up return line to chamber 2 behind the skimmer. Works pretty well so far and nice and cheap!