Hmmm... where to begin? I'll have to break it up into sections I suppose.
Equipment - I did add the Orphek Atlantik lights to the display and I really like them. Also get one for the lagoon. The stand and canopy are completely finished and everything is installed. I am really happy with how it turned out and it's very functional which was a huge goal. I did add a gyre to the right side of my tank to push water towards the overflow as I would occasionally get an "oil slick" on the surface and due to my setup it would stay on one side. That seems to be solved now.
I traded out the 40g tub that was my lagoon and installed a 75 gal tank and a new manifold with improved valves. It's pretty cool looking but now I wonder if I still need to get a bigger lagoon. :0)
Fish - This has been up and down. I did add a few more damsels to the display and most recently I added a Tahiti gold hawkfish that I had an opportunity to purchase. It was pricey but they are rare and it is a very cool fish to watch. Very aggressive when it comes to food. It doesn't like the arc eye hawk at all. I did get another Solar wrasse which was tiny when I got it.
It's now a full adult and nearly full size. Very cool fish. A couple months later, I added a labouti wrasse which was always on my "want" list. It was a juvenile and was doing quite well, growing and starting to get some really nice color. One morning I found him sitting on top of the screen tops that are supposed to keep the fish IN. Argh, that was a bummer. So what did I do? I had an opportunity to order 3 more wrasses (lineatus, labouti, and Scott's) that I really have wanted. They came in and the first two looked amazing. The Scott's looked to be on death's door. They all made it through TTM and into QT. The Scott's lasted a total of 2 weeks before finally letting go. The other two continued to eat like champs and become more social. The actual day I was going to put them in the DT (day 40) I notice they are both lying on the bottom of QT and looking like death was imminent. No idea what happened but it was like a switch. They went through TTM and full QT and the very last day they die. The rest of the fish are doing well... just getting bigger!
The lagoon has received a few new guests as well. I did have an azure damsel in there with the humu trigger and a pair of misbar clowns. I have since added a two spot yellow tail tang (bristletooth) and an Assasi trigger. I LOVE having a pair of triggers in there! They are both really fat and happy. Occasionally they'll go after one another but no damage yet.
Corals - Through the summer, I had several colonies that were getting massive and I figured it was time to trim them. At the same time, something odd started to happen and several of these large colonies just started to die in the very middle and radiate outward. It was a relatively slow process and if I cut off the living portion it seemed to be fine. The dead portion seemed to be rotting slightly on the inside of the skeleton. I lost quite a bit of coral biomass there but thankfully I was able to save chunks of almost everything to start over. I never found anything wrong with the system but it did prompt me to dose Microbacter7 on a weekly basis and my only thought was that it was something bacterial. In reality it was probably a combo of several factors (ALK consumption, pH, and bacteria). I have a few friends that had very similar events in their systems at the same time. Strange indeed.
Overall, it's still running pretty smoothly though I'm always keeping an eye on my "canaries" and trying my best to keep stability where possible.
The blueface is still behaving himself which is great. Hoping the next two weeks will allow me to complete the canopy and lighting swap.
