Been too long for an update. Things are going very smoothly at this point. I've moved to an Orphek Atlantik V4 light which has been great for this tank. Tank stays much cooler than with the T5s and gives great coverage and super pop to the corals. Still have the Tank, clowns and Flame Hawk and Maxima. I gave away the Chromis, since they were getting pretty big and adding a bit too much to the bio load.
Had the good fortune of a co-worker buying out a local persons setup for just the equipment and he gave me the guy's corals....lots of Acans, Montis and SPS. Also had a Purple Flame Goby which I went ahead and added. So filled out the tank well.
My Chaeto Fuge was a bit of a disaster. Light spillage caused GHA to take over the sump and then the tank had a nasty GHA issue about 4 months ago and the Chaeto wouldn't grow. This was when I removed the Chromis. Reduced nutrients to zilch via Nopox dosing. Got it mostly under control but it wouldn't go away. Corals were a bit pale with no nutrients. Stopped the Nopox and used Vibrant for about 1.5 months and the tank was finally clean. Bought a Turbo Algae scrubber to go alongside the Reef Octopus Skimmer. It seeded right away and had been keeping things stable in the tank. Works much better in the small sump than the Chaeto and far easier to control the nutrient uptake.
Once all was stable, bought a Apex Trident and am able to keep the Alk at a constant 8.5 dkh +/- 0.2. Over the following 2 months, the coral growth had really taken off and my Alk consumption went from 40ml/day to about 100ml/day of BRS Soda Ash liquid where it sits today.
Anyway, quite happy with the tank as it is. By Fall, the SPS will probably start to need trimming, since it's growing about 1/8"/week. The Clown are laying eggs about every 2.5-3 weeks. I'm not up for trying to raise them though.
), but I'm not considering a re-home at this time.
