Just wanted to post some photos of the tank in its current state. It has been awhile since I have posted here.
I lost the three SPS I added earlier this summer. The monti cap went first. I think I should have taken it out because as it died, toward the end it started releasing a slime into the tank. Once I noticed, I took it out but after that, one after another my chalice and other SPS went and shortly after that my hammer started receding and never recovered. The frogspawn is close to being dead too. I never knew for sure why they all died but my parameters never changed out of the ordinary (I keep an excel spreadsheet with all of my test results from the start).
My yellow banded possum wrasse seems to be doing well and my entire snail clean up crew is alive and well along with my emerald crab.
The two new coral frags in the tank (Torch and Hammer) were both 25 dollars and are looking great as of right now. The new coral came from a really small boutique style saltwater shop I discovered by accident. This shop is only 2 years old and not many people know about it yet I don't think because in all of my internet searching for aquarium shops in my area never came up with anything for it even though they have a website. I found a post from them on craigslist randomly showing some frags they had for sale and the quality was so much better than the shop I was going to before and the prices on everything are much much cheaper. The torch coral would have been at least 100 dollars at the store I was going to and the plug most likely would have been covered in nuisance algae. So glad I found a good store and will do all of my aquarium shopping there now! Anyone in the Twin Cities needs to check out New Wave Aquaria.
https://www.facebook.com/NewWaveAquaria
I just found an interview from 9/22/16 with the owner, Jen, by Melevsreef while searching for their facebook link! Crazy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBeBMa6PhLY
Well I think that's enough for this update, I will post again in the next couple of months to keep track of the changes!