aquatic mouse

So I've been saying I'm going to be doing this for a very long time. My words were: In 10 years or so, figuring that was how long the FOWLR fish would live. Long story short, I can't wait. It's happened. I caught the SPS bug and gotta have it. Not 10 years from now, less than 10 months from now.

Here's the plan:
Step 1. Plan what I want.
I want to re-do my rock. I'm not pleased with it. It all just lays in a single layer on the bottom. I want a cave structure and a pyramid. I've also always wanted a school of anthias and a cleaner shrimp of some variety. LEDs will be a must. The cave structure will take up 1/2 the tank, LEDs will be on the other 1/2. Dusty (my hubby) has agreed to make these for me for my birthday this year (November).

Step 2. Sell the fish that won't work.
Jetsam (snowflake eel) - will knock over the rock work I want to do.
Flotsam (green wolf eel) - see above
Jerry (bird wrasse) - grabs sps and beats them against rocks. How do I know this? I put a dead bird's nest in the tank and that's exactly what he did. Also, he would eat the anthias and the shrimp.
Aku (lionfish) - would eat the anthias and the shrimp.
Hank (porcupine puffer) - after Jerry was done with the bird's nest, Hank picked it up and and chewed it into a dozen pieces. Not reef safe. Hank actually moved to a 40 gallon breeder. This tank is 18 inches wide (same as the 180g from the overflows to the front), 3 feet long, and 19 inches tall (Hank doesn't swim up and down much). It'll last him awhile. I may move him to something bigger as he grows, but for now he's happy in it.

Step 3. Purchase new fish.
I chose Maldives Anthias because I like the purple line on the females and the shininess of the males. I also chose a blood red fire shrimp because he's so bright and pretty.

Step 4. Rock Work.
I'm going to build a cave structure. I can't seem to find a picture of it outside Anthony Calfo's Coral Propagation book, but it's basically a big "C". I'll need to build a PVC structure, and drill my larger pieces of rock into smaller pieces and zip tie them over the pvc. I'm building this with 3/4 inch pipe. This will give me room to put my current T-5's on either side. I'll have lower light corals there. I'm looking forward to seeing my shrimp climb up the rock work. I'm also going to build a pyramid with numerous cave holes in front of the left overflow.

Step 5. Lights

Step 6. Corals