Not sure how I lost track of your build but glad I found it again. You have an amazing way with setting up your aqua scape! I'm sorry you are having issues but it does sound like you are working through them.
I know it will take awhile, but the coral on the right side will eventually grow and hide the left side of the overflow imo.
Yes I think it will fill in with coral as well so I'm sticking to the scape I have.
Quick update:
Aiptasia - All gone on the rock work and in the sump. Some still in the overflow that don't seem to be hurting anything so Im just going to leave them alone.
Dinos - Gone. Solution was to remove the sand. No matter what I tried over the 2 year period I couldnt beat them so I removed there home. This apparently worked. I have just a light dusting of sand on the bottom about 2 or 3 grains thick.
SPS - encrusting and sending out new tips. These were almost all dead. I had to remove dead tips back in July that were growing algae. Some encrusting SPS that were visibly gone have popped up and are now growing quickly. Alkalinity consumption is slowly increasing over the months. Went from 5ml of Triton Core 7 per day in August and now am up to 16ml per day to keep parameters steady.
LPS - These all look sad and dieing still. Ive given up on them and whatever survives does and whatever dies does. I wont be getting any more LPS at this point. I wanted an SPS dominated tank to begin with so Im fine with this.
Equipment Changes - I changed the lights out to Ecotech Radions running AB+ program and modified the sump to triton. I think these two things made a huge difference. Im doing far less maintenance and my parameters are rock solid. Im pulling a large clump of macro algae every week and it all looks very healthy. Skimmer production is minimal now and probably could just be removed from the system but Im not going to mess with it as I dont want to unbalance things now that its going smoothly. Plus it is no effort to clean the cup once per week.
Bottom line:
Really enjoying the tank now and not fighting battles. I was spending around 10 hours / week maintenance in July before changes. Now I spend about 30 minutes a week and that is mostly feeding. Much more reasonable. Really happy with my fish selection as the tank is colorful and always active. I have Acros on hold with Battle Corals that Ill have them ship next month once Im confident that all my sticks are healthy and flourishing and the LPS decide if they are going to live or die.
At least I know I can quickly get it cleaned up when my trial is over.
