So its been about a month and I thought I'd post another update.
Overall tank has been doing okay, my 72 day Ich fallow period has come to an end and I have finally added the only survivor, a Blue Tang back into the tank! Over the next month I will quarantine and add more fish again which I hope will benefit the tank health overall with more balanced nutrient load, import/export with increased feeding etc...
My most recent harvest of the rain2 was ~75grams of squeezed algae, biggest harvest yet. The color has been pretty green lately with little to no yellow, I have also noticed the growth is denser/thicker with 'krinkled' wavey kind of pattern. More like 'turf' I guess. I have been feeding more and will continue to do so as I add more fish. My nitrates seems to be pretty stable at somewhere between 0.25 and 1ppm, but its hard to read, when my current test kit is finished I might change to another brand that has better resolution at the low end. Maybe the Red Sea Pro kit?
I have reduced the vinegar dose in my kalkwasser from 200ml to 125ml over the last 2 weeks as levels Alk and Calcium have been slowly rising. My Alk and Calcium has been pretty stable at 7.7dkh-8dkh and 440ppm-450ppm respectively for the last 2 weeks at the current dosing (kalk in ATO).
I have modified my lights spectrum a bit. I lowered overall use of 'whites' both in intensity and duration, and increased overall usage of 'blue' in intensity. I slightly lowered usage of the 'UV spectrum as well as I read reports of it being particularly strong on my particular brand of LED's. (Illumagic Blaze X)
SPS still doesnt like me, I am still not totally sure of the cause of most of my SPS dying, but I am working on the theory of it originating from instability ~2 months ago. From what I understand SPS lags behind the stress events for some time. Most of my wild colonies are dead and gone or dying and probably not going to recover but fingers crossed. I am hoping to see improvements in my surviving SPS in the next month. Some small glimmers of hope are
- green monti cap to the right hand side of the bridge in my tank has started returning from what I thought was totally bleached death in the last few days with new color and visible polyps
- green monti cap to the left is looking great and is growing
- forest fire digi frag has polyp extension again, although its general color is still 'dark' as compared to what its supposed to look like
- green dalas frags (I have 2) are both almost completely brown and have been for over a month now, but hopefully they recover - its supposed to be a very hardy acro...
Everything else, all my LPS is doing great!
https://i.imgur.com/dr4KL7A.mp4