Almost a month since the last update.
I've had a lot of up and down with the calcium reactor. I think that the Apex tracking tool, while useful, makes you think that every parameter is the source of your problems. I'm a data person so I'm all too familiar with "lying with statistics", so an alkalinity swing from 7.5-8.5 looks like what you'd think a 6dkh to 11dkh swing would be. So I'm constantly fretting about my alkalinity. Doesn't help that the reactor either overshoots or undershoots, and I don't get bubbles from my bubble counter, I just get a low-pressure stream of small bubbles until I hit a high bubble rate.
My nitrates have also been bumping around the 10-20ppm levels. Salinity is rock solid. Calcium I rarely check, but it's usually 370-400.
But man, I've lost almost every SPS, and two clams. And it comes in waves too. No idea why, no algae, nothing other than they just start to bleach, die, and immediately turn purple with coralline algae. LPS corals seem to be doing just fine.
Fishes are doing well, most of the anthias had died off, but since then, one male and one female remain, and they seem fat and happy. Three happy tangs, three mostly happy wrasses, clown, and angel. Everyone is fat and happy. I see some small croppings of bubble algae here and there, but I do see the tangs pick on them so I'm hoping they're keeping it back.
Tank is as purple as can be. Pretty good for ~4-5 months from bleached rock.
It's just really frustrating for me and my wife to have invested a lot of sweat equity, time, and frankly $$$ into all of these acros, to see almost all of them go down the tube. I've spent a lot of time banging my head against the wall with figuring out this small bubble issue with the regulator. LQT has been really helpful with the regulator questions (though still nobody knows why the small bubble stream), and I do have a new regulator to swap out to see if it makes a difference, but I suspect it won't make a difference.
I also did finally set up the peristaltic pump, and while it is working great (and was super easy to set up), the dang fittings keep leaking. I was smart and placed a plastic tote cover upside down under the pump to catch any leaks, and between that and a piece of paper towel right underneath the fitting, the leak evaporates before it pools anywhere, but it's still annoying, and in a very difficult place to reach (the 20LB CO2 tank takes up a LOT of the space under the tank, making everything very hard to reach).
Overall, I'm still very happy with the fishes, and I'm glad I have some really nice alveopora and neat other LPS, but man, this has not felt good struggling so far with SPS. The only one barely hanging on, is my Pearlberry that looked dead from day 1, until it turned bright lime green, and has since stayed relatively dead looking other than being lime green and not covered in coralline.
I'll do some more water changes, I might even swap the regulator and CO2 tank out too. heck, I could even consider throwing the CarbonDoser on just to see if that helps.
