A small update...
I've been testing my parameters and everything was spot on, except for nitrates. Throughout a few weeks, they've been increasing. Yesterday they were at about 12, and I couldn't figure what the heck was wrong.
Well yesterday I figured it out. I found a big piece of rusted disintigrating metal mesh in the bottom of the overflow that fell in there and I forgot about. It's been in there for at least a month.
I'm pretty sure that's what's been causing the rise in nitrates. Needless to say, I removed it, and I'll be doing some water changes to bring down those nitrates.
I also setup my biopellets reactor. I used Vertex biopellets in a vertex reactor (pump is a Mag 350). I started off with 100 ml, and I'll be adding 100 ml weekly until I reach the recommended dosage of about 500 ml. There are mixed reactions on biopellets, and I'm curious to see how it affects my system. I'll add some pictures and details tonight.
Next on the list is deciding whether or not to remove the filter sock.