Finally almost complete. My ATO reservoir from Melevsreef finally arrived. Took longer then expected but looks great and should last many years. I got that setup with the Tunze osmolator so no more manual topping off every morning and night!
Also added in an MP10 to help with flow. Having a hard time getting it exactly how I like it without moving sand around. I'm sure as corals grow into colonies and block flow from areas it'll get easier. Added the battery backup for the gyre.
Slowly increasing lighting as well with a goal of 8 hours peak light and 2 hours on each end of ramp up/down. Currently at 7 hours peak.
Testing remains stable. Alk at 7.5-8, CA 440-460. Phosphates 33 ppb and nitrate around 10-15. Would like to drop them closer to 5.
I lost the 2 frogapawn pieces I had for some reason. The 1 looked like something damaged it, I did see a crab near the rock so maybe it was the culprit. When I went to remove it from the rock to place it in lower flow I accidently crushed part of the skeleton. It then just melted away over a week. The other I ordered online and it looked pretty bleached but seemed to be doing OK. Only odd thing was itd retract its polyps every afternoon and look terrible for an hour or 2. It opened nice every morning,would go through its ugly stage for that small time frame, then extend again and look normal.. Then the mouths started gaping and tissue started coming off. No signs of brown jelly and it was right next to a 3 headed hammer which looks great still. Other corals look great and I see new growth and encrusting on both montis. The PE on the green slimer and all sps is amazing. The hammers, candycanes, and elegance all get super puffy and see happy. I'm going to just say the frogs were not healthy and I didn't take the appropriate steps to nurse them back to health.
I waited about 10 days after the issue with the frogs and then purchased another batch of coral from a local reefer. Seem to have better look with overall health getting aquacultured pieces that have been in their systems for many years and grown well. I purchased a large branching green frogspawn, a branching frammer, a jack-o-lantern lepto, a miyagi tort, a yellow tipped acro, and an unnamed green coral I need to ID. They're all dipped and just placed in random spots for now. Will let them settle for a week or so before I try to place them in spots on the rockwork.
I'm going to place an order from boom corals for some more sps shortly. After that just the waiting game to transfer fish over. Once they're in the system I'll have to QT corals in a separate holding tank. I'll have enough pieces to not risk bring in coral pest as well as fish disease.
