Thank you for your reply @Sam Parker. I can't say I had major issues with the previous tank as in reality it was only 4 months old. I've had no deaths apart from a couple turbo snails and apart from the norm, (at least I think it was the norm for a new tank) like GHA early on and phosphate being a little high I managed to get all my parameters quite stable.
My biggest mistake was that I had gone to the wrong LFS, listened to their advice and paid a great deal of money for what people are telling me aren't all as good as the LFS had lead me to believe. Not to mention purchasing a tank that was way to tall to actually be able to do anything in without having to put my snorkelling gear on.
I've also had issues with my skimmer not really collecting much at all, again have been told to just "play around with it" but still can't get it to pull much out. I've come to the conclusion that this may be due to the fact that there isn't much stock in the current set up and I don't overfeed. Water clarity looks amazing atm and whilst cycling it seemed to be working quite well.
As for the new set up, I'm definitely in no rush to be stocking any more than what I currently have until I know all is stable but I have my fingers crossed that all goes smoothly as my plan is to put all current livestock into this set up.
My current LFS has offered to hold all my livestock if need be in his holding tanks.
Main priority for the moment is looking at lights. The ZetLight I currently have is 1) not big enough and 2) apparently shit so time to go shopping!
Think I may be the only mother I know who's hinted that I'd like lights for Mother's Day .
