Well, 10 weeks after the mini-crash (ugh, it's been a long haul) I think I'm finally starting to enjoy the tank again. I've been adding some corals - 3 wild Aussie Acros (inc the one above), and a few maricultured mini-colonies. With a few bigger pieces interspersed it's starting to look nicer - you can actually see corals, not just rock!
I just did this week's water change and glued down frags/mini-colonies that are doing well. I've had some trouble adding frags, but my mini-colonies are all doing really well. Everything is pale though as nutrients are nonexistent. I'm not doing anything to "fix" this other than feeding the fish 4-5x per day. I've seen a patch of green cyano near the anemone and diatoms are a bit more lush than I'd like, so I added a half dozen Ring Cowries a couple days ago. I still have a fair bit of Bubble Algae as my two Emerald Crabs who almost had it cleaned up perished during the mini-crash. I found a little haven of Aiptasia anemones in a nook that I nuked - hopefully they won't rear their ugly head again.
I tested alkalinity a couple days ago, and it was 6.85 dKH so I dosed up to 7.2 dKH, then another up to 7.6 dKH. That's the first time I've dosed alkalinity for 12 weeks! Finally, the growth is superceding my water changes again.
All I'm dosing these days is 3 drops per day Sponge Power which I've been doing for the last 3 weeks.
I'm almost done a bucket of H2Ocean, and I'm going to order up a bucket of Aquaforest Probiotic Reef Salt which I'm excited to try out.
I added a Gyre XF150 to the mix, and I've been able to run it on a quick pulse at 50% with some careful positioning. PE has improved significantly since this addition after a couple days of them getting used to it. I still have the two 6055 running full blast too. With the Gyre supposedly pushing 4200 gph at 100%, I guess I have it somewhere around 2000 gph? Plus 3000 gph from the two 6055. So, ramping 3000 to 5000 gph total? Or 45-75x turnover. Sounds nice to me.
I'll try to get some pics tonight when the lights are on full.