I totally understand that frustration, re:how long is this going to take – 3? 4? 10? But I totally agree with
@Tamberav
Everybody throws around phrases like "you have to let your tank mature" or "your tank won't be ready for SPS for at least a year". But what is actually different in a mature tank? What actually happens in that year?
Perhaps different people have different reasons for saying that, but I think many have no reason. To me, the difference is biology. An established base of diverse bacteria, biome, little critters, etc.
That's true. But I think in all of those cases, there is biological base established early/quickly. It's the same as all the dino threads. You have 20 people saying "I never had this problem until I used dry rock", and then there's always one or two people that say "I started my tank with dry rock and dead sand and I never had problems". But I think they ended up with biology (and conditions) that have kept dinos at bay – one way or another. Even if the reason was they added so many corals so quickly that the frag plugs and corals themselves provided the life.
The rule that you have to wait a year is nonsense. You can add corals (even SPS) into a tank that's not even cycled. The needs of the corals just have to be met (see "one last point" below).
I actually have had the exact same path as you, and it even included the same problem coral as you (FF digi). I started up a new tank in 2018 with dry rock and dead sand. I went slow and waited about a year to add any SPS. I also started with a FF digi. But it perished quickly. I went through this process over and over and had the same results. My params appropriate, and were super stable. I've been keeping reef tanks for more than 20 years so I was scratching my head. I chased all the stuff like you are now – stray voltage, magnets, chlorine, chemical poisoning. After exhausting all of those possibilities, I decided to go beyond the bottled bacterias everyone was raving about, like MB7, and add REAL marine life. I put several pieces of aquacultured LR from KP Aquatics, I bought some Hawaiian live sand and wonder mud from IPSF, I bought some live rock rubble from Aquabiomics, and scored a couple pieces of actual ocean LR that my LFS somehow scored. So back to the SPS: I added a few new acropora and boom. They're thriving. And it's stayed that way ever since.
And in addition to being able to keep SPS in that tank, it wiped out dinos that had been lingering.
People are starting to call "bacterial diversity" and "microbiome" buzzwords. Go ahead. The fact is, we need it. And it's not getting in our tanks without adding it.
One last point... I also simultaneously started another tank not too long after the one described above. That one got 100% KP Aquatics live rock. I observed it for a few days and added 2 pieces of acropora 4 days in. Their growth and health actually exceeds the other tank I described above.
As for my advice, I would certainly finish testing all of the things you're working on now (stray voltage, chloramines, etc.) and I would indeed get an ICP. It's good peace of mind for sure. And after you've satisfied all of that, I would look at adding some "little" life.
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