Been close to a year since I've updated this build. Over last spring and summer I was having a lot of issues that I never could trace down a cause. Lost every single monti, pocci, and birdnest coral and a few of the acros as well as 1 lepto and the Duncan's. The stylo had severe dieback and the besides the frogspawn nothing seemed to grow. Everything tested ok and ICP didn't show anything abnormal, had no new addition, and didn't notice any sort of pest. I attempted to ride it out and not make any changes blindly and cause further damage, it's so difficult to not knee jerk react and watch corals waste away.
By fall the damage seemed to have stopped spreading although I didn't see any new growth. Fish stayed healthythis while time, only algae issue I had was cyano on the bed. I decided enough was enough and to try and correct whatever happened since nothings improving. I started trace elements, picked up my waterchanges, and studied my log. Turns out a few weeks before the decline I bumped up the flow and kessils and never attributed this to the negative reactions. Always assumed it was from the rogue angel I had to remove and some sort of coral disease. I turned the lights back down, kept up larger waterchanges, and kept dosing trace elements. Was very subtle but I noticed some improvements over the following few weeks. The purple stylo seemed to be growing skin back on the encrusted base but the branches had been too far gone and were growing algae. I decided to make the painful decision to rip all the dead or close to dead corals out to prevent any disease and see what happens. I noticed some new encrustment on the acros, better extention from my lps, and the purple stylo seemed to be growing back soon really well. I watched over a month and saw no new decline anywhere and only improvements so when on a shopping spree to buy new corals and see what happens. Been a month since the new additions and things seem to be doing pretty well.
I decided to use this time for a nice deep clean. Took down the sump and cleaned it and all the pumps out. Putting it back in caused an issue and a bulkhead started leaking, ended up having to saw off the old piece and install a brand new bulkhead. Luckily I got it all hooked back up without 90 gallons of water on my head and no more leaks. I thoroughly cleaned the lights and powerheads, ended up buying a new lid from clearview instead of my makeshift window frame lid, and custom built a lid for the sump as well.
I'll post some updates pics when i get a chance. Plans moving forward are another ICP to make sure things look in check, rent a par meter to see exactly how much light I'm blasting at these corals, and try and figure out why montis hate me so bad. Of all the new corals I added the acros and lps look great. Every single monti and pocci faded away so I moved them to a basement tank and they seem to be recovering. Cant figure out why my new red planet and blue tort frags are showing growth, good colors, great PE, and encrusting yet simple montis and poccis just fail.
Been a journey over this past year and the tank isn't where I thought it'd be for sure. They say nothing good comes fast and I see many builds have early struggles. I'm confident if I just keep chugging along and making changes slowly and smartly eventually it'll get there. It's not all bad, I did get my potters angel in July and he's a model citizen. Also a few of my acros have grown like crazy including my Acroberry and green slimer.
