What's next?

I haven't posted in a while, but I've got something I wanted to run by everyone. I'm relatively new to the hobby. I set my 125 gal reef tank just about a year ago. All is going ok. I've had some corals and some fish die here and there, but no major catastrophies. I did get ich in the tank, but once the two tangs that had it died I haven't had any issues. So, I just stopped trying to put tangs in my tank. For the most part my water parameters are stable. Nitrates and phosphates are an ongoing issue when it is time to do water changes and when my GFO starts getting old.

I've pretty much got my tank stocked with the fish I like. I have T5's so I haven't had much luck with SPS corals (and haven't attempted it much). I also think I should be getting more color from the existing stuff that I have. For the most part though everything looks good and I enjoy watching the tank every day.

I guess my real question is "what's next"? Now that everything is right where I want it I can't help but think back to how excited I was every time I'd get a new fish or a new coral or some new piece of equipment. Now I kind of just sit back and enjoy the tank and try not to mess anything up. How do you long time guys keep interested and excited in this hobby? It just seems like eventually I'll get bored just watching the tank (that's sounds stupid huh?)

What are some of the intermediate level things that I might try? or what are some equipment upgrades that I might try now that I'm not really a "beginner" any longer. I don't have any kind of reef controller. Is that the next step? I'd also love to upgrade my lights to LED's but the only ones I've seen so far that I really like are the Ecotech Radions (I've got two Ecotech MP40's and an MP10). Three of those LED fixtures at $750 each is an expensive upgrade (and I'm not sure if I even need it considering the corals that I have).

I'm thinking of maybe addind some kind of reef controller and replacing all of my T5 bulbs with something better like the ATI bulbs. I just need something to "tinker" with!

I'll take some pics tonight and post them tomorrow. Here is just quick list of my equipment and some answers to your questions:

125 gal tank
165 lbs live rock
Trigger Systems sump (deep sand bed and chaeto in the "refugium section") The water coming in from the tank overflows goes through filter socks. They "clog" up about once a week and I have to rinse them out. Every time I rinse them out I find a ton of Amphipods and baby snails. I pick out all of the live ones and return them to the main tank.

Reef Octopus external skimmer (skims well and I clean out a good amount of skimmate when I do water changes every other week).
For flow I have two MP40's (one on each end of the tank) and an MP10 in the middle of the back of the tank.
I have the Bulk Reef Supply GFO reactor. It seems to work OK. It doesn't look like most other phosphate reactors though. I have fine tuned the flow so that GFO doesn't tumble too much. I don't really have problems with algae. I get pink and green hair algae in my overflows and in my refugion on the Chaeto every now and then. I clean out a few big clumps ever other month or so. I do have to clean my glass ever three to four days. I'm not sure if that is "too much" or not. I don't really have a good phosphate test kit.

I do have an auto top of system. I have a water supply and a drain in a closet adjacent to the tank. The drain is nice for water changes. I can siphon right out of the tank into the drain. The water supply is hooked directly up to my RO/DI system. The RO/DI output has a "Y"...one output goes into a 10 gallon trash can with a float valve and auto cutoff (this is where the ATO water comes from. I have a small power head in there to keep the fresh water moving and then the power head for the ATO). The other output from the RO/DI goes into a 30 gallon trash can which is where I make the salt water for my water changes. I usually produce the water a few days in advance and get the salinity right. There is a MAG 16 pump in that trash can to mix the water. Then I just turn a ball valve and water will pump right into my sump. The only draw back is that the MAG16 puts off a little heat. So, I can't leave it running too long or the new batch of water gets too warm.

I dose alk with Brightwell Aquatics kH buffer (one dose per week seems to keep alk right around 9.5 - 10). I've thought about switching to 2 part or Kalkwasser for dosing, but my local Reef store doesn't really have much experience with this. So, the brightwell stuff in the bottle is what I use. It's about $10 for a bottle about once every 6 weeks.
I dose magnesium when I do my water changes (I change about 25 gal every other weekend and I a couple capfulls of the Brightwell Aquatics magnesium then). Magnesiums stays above 1300 usually.
My calcium is always around 500 or 550. I don't dose calcium really. It seems like the salt from my water changes does enough.

I'm sure I've left some stuff out. I'll upload a bunch of pics later so you can see what my equipment looks like as well as the fish and corals that I have so far.

Also, I don't mind spending money to do stuff the "right" way. I tried to spare no expense and do everything the best I could when first setting up the tank. The only reason I went with T5's is because the tank is kind of in an "in the wall" type of cabinet/closet. I get some circulation and ventilation but the heat issue from metal halides was a big drawback. Right now my water temp stays about 79 without the need for a heater (although I do have one in the sump. The heater is set on about 77 degrees just in case the temp drops down in the winter or something).

I rinse the filter socks with tap water in the sink. I never thought about the small amount of tap water that is left in them after rinsing or the fact that I'm not getting everything out when rinsing. I've always worried about putting any kind of chemicals in them. I guess I better look into that. The water running into the sump makes a lot of noise without the filter socks. So, I like to keep using them. So if I understand this correctly the proper cleaning process should be: 1) rinse them with tap water 2) soak them overnight with vinegar and water (bleach just sounds scary) 3) then rinse them out really well the next day 4) let them dry out completely before putting back into sump. Does sound about right?

The bulbs in my T5 fixture are the original bulbs. It has been almost a year since I bought the fixture. I'd love to hear recommendations on what to replace them with and what combination of bulbs. There are 12 36" bulbs.