Acropolis 2.0
Having tried different ideas with the old Acropolis, I'm taking the chance to make some changes to the setup.
Diversity
Diversity in the aquarium ecosystem has many benefits: it provide food at different levels. It also provide some innate robustness against pathogenic and nuisance organisms.
Therefore I would focus on the diversity of bacterial and algal populations first. And hopefully, this will lead to more substantial benthic and planktonic microfauna.
Simplification
This time, I will endeavor to run the aquarium with as little equipment as possible. For every piece of equipment used, often there are draw backs as well. I elect to stop using the fleece roller to allow better resident time of coral food. I also decided to stop using the UV to try and improve planktonic flora. Will these help in establish a balanced aquarium? Only time will tell.
Optimization
When an aquarium is running, it is difficult to make big changes. One aspect is the flow.
The diagram above is my old set up. The return (orange) and wave maker (green) provided reasonable flow. However, there is always a layer of surface scum trapped on the right side of the aquarium. This necessitate installing an additional wavemaker (blue) to disrupt and disperse the biofilm. The additional wavemaker obstruct the view from the side. Taking away the peninsula kind of charm.
With the new setup. A small tweak solve the problem.
The outlet of the return pump is turned downwards. This results in a "reverse" gyre, the surface layer is pushed into the overflow, results in perfect surface skimming.