Regarding your mandarin. If you want to move along the pods process, look into culturing your own phyto and pods at home. It's REALLY easy and will save you a boatload. One thing I don't see mentioned often is that my home made phyto is more concentrated then Mercers/AlgaeBarn or any other commercial product I have bought. The only exception was the starter culture I used, I picked that up off a user here and it was very dense.
I have been looking into it. I'll probably just start with easy stuff and buy the premade phyto for now, but I'll learn eventually.
I still need a fuge light and some more rubble I think. I'm happy with my rockwork, but it wasn't as much "volume" as I thought it was gonna be. I'd like a little bit more just for my sump.
I still need do some research on fuges and macroalgae. Not 100% sure if i just want rubble or macroalgae or some weird combination of both.