Yeah I have been keeping marines for awhile now and other then the odd minor incedent (fish eating crabs and the odd coral loss) I have never had any major issues. Seems like this new tank is just cursed
Anyway. I set the sump up last night (finally) and so far (tocuh wood) its all working ok. It is VERY loud though. I'm going to dig out some filter foam later to stop the pump vibrating and will have to try and fit a durso overflow later on (though this will be extremley difficult). The return pump is probably more powerful than I actually needed. I have it tee'ed off with a valve so half is going back into the sump again. I might use this to power a DIY skimmer as there is a lot of flow there so I might as well use it for something.
I have someone coming to collect the damsels at the weekend and then I have 8 weeks of a tank with no fish in (all in QT now, stupid ich).
I do have a bad case of Cyano again but I think this is mostly due to not having nearly enough flow in there. Hopefully the flow from the sump return will help a lot (as it has removed a massive dead spot on the bottom of the tank where there is no rock). I'm looking for cheap options to increase the water flow as well (currently looking at the resun wavemakers).
Corals are still doing really well except for my bubble coral which never really recovered from being cooked with almost 3 days of constant light and then being moved. Its still opening up but half of it is not opening nearly as much as it used too
My toadstool leather is massive now though and my mushrooms are growing all over the place. My xenia and GSP are also spreading really quickly.
Anyway I will need to destroy the aqauscape again tonight to get the damsels out and into the sump tank for tomorrow. Once I have rebuilt it I will take some decent photos to put up
I might just get some base rock for now as well to help fill the tank a bit more.