AAARGHAAAARAHRHAAA!!!!!!!!!

WEll, I ended up getting the only replacement pump the LFS had in stock (and it was still cheaper than overnighting a pump). The problem is that a) it is rated for ponds only and b) it doesn't have enough head pressure to run both my sump and scrubber. If the scrubber is opened full, there is zero water flow into the display. The funny thing is that this pump is rated at 1300 gph, but it the shutoff is only 8ft! So this is something that is strictly temporary while I wait for my other pump to be shipped in. I'm actually going with a larger pump to give more water flow over the scrubber. Fortunately, the new pump features a similar wattage. It's an Ocean Runner 6500, which I've had good luck with in the past (but not on my personal tank). So all I can do is wait longer for now.
 
An update on this:

Okay, after replacing the pump, we had a lightning storm while I was away for a couple days. It apparently fried my new pump (maybe my surge protector was already fried?) and the tank sat without a return, skimmer, or scrubber for over 2 days completely unattended. Let's just say I came home to utter chaos and rage. All my sps were dead, one of my resident clownfishes had disappeared, and everything looked awful. This was about 2 weeks ago--it has taken me this long to even bother typing about it, because I was so angry. The only things left are my old-timers, like the half-alive bubble coral, red open brain, my oldest female clownfish, and my oargrass that I thought had completely died off (quite the opposite). I've since broken the tank down and started a 25 gallon cube as of today. I haven't gotten the lighting or overflow for it yet, though. I've been looking at one of the 250w Oceanlights, since they are reasonably cheap and about $5 more than the 150w version. That will give me lots of light for what is essentially going to be a seagrass/macro/anemone tank. I haven't really decided on what species the anemone will be, but I don't mind devoting the entirety of the tank to it at this point. It will still have many of the same bells and whistles. I'll still have 3200 gph of turnover (a big downgrade for me), 250w 10K XM, a turf scrubber for filtration, 100% kalkwasser for auto-topoff, and some carbon floating passively. I'm going to have to build a sump, though, since the dimensions of the stand are quite odd. I think I'll make a new thread in the next couple of days to chronicle this a bit. Kind of a new direction for me, since I'm fed up with higher end corals for the moment. I'm keeping the 40 breeder for any future plans that might pop up, though.
 
That is some serious bad luck. Nice to see you're sticking around, I don't know if I could with those disasters eating at me. Good luck with the new tank.
 
Yeah, I think I may be a sucker for punishment. That's why this new tank is going to be as simple as I can make it, while making it as sturdy as possible (in terms of animals, equipment, and water quality).
 
Thanks. I'll be detailing my new build in another thread here shortly, though :). I've got to make the best of it, in any case.
 
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