You moved that branching coral from below center left to mid center between the pictures that are one week apart. (It appears to be a bird nest, or branching monti, or?) Whatever, without PAR measurements everyone (including me) can only guess if the lighted portion in the center of the tank (directly beneath the bb) has:
A. Too much PAR, or
B. Too little PAR, or
C. Just the right PAR at the top of the rocks, or
D. Just the right PAR at the bottom of the tank, or
E. Just the right PAR somewhere in between.
F None of the above (wrong spectral output to grow SPS).
So given that your parameters are ok (ignoring the original high kH) and assuming that there is daily stability in the parameters tested based upon tests made once in a while, I think your system needs more attention than you have been giving it if you want to have SPS. With 80 hours/ work week I can understand how this might not be able to happen, but perhaps for now you should be content with a few softies until your situation allows you to:
Test your kH , Nitrates, Phosphates daily, and CA, MG, weekly to figure out if you really do have stability in the important areas. (If I missed something to test, someone chime in?)
The PAR seems to be working for the softies, but either buy or rent a meter or get a light (or lights) that will cover the whole area in the tank. Perhaps you can acquire a reef light that has a published spectral performance that can give you more assurance than the black box can as far as expected PAR output? Shooting in the dark is a guessing game and with more than 5 possible correct answers the odds of guessing correctly do not favor your success. Get a new light. Research, ask people what they have that works to grow sps over similar foot print and copy them. I don't like bb because they have dial-a-spectrum output and this is not conducive to stability.
Digression: When a coral settles out from the plankton it attaches to the coral bedrock and starts to grow in place. It does not move around the reef until it finds the right spectrum but it grows in place according to the light regime available at that spot. It will spread out its base to gather light where ever it can. The growth of the coral reflects the conditions of the area of settlement. (Its more complicated than I've let on, but this is good enough for what I'm trying to explain here.) If the light isn't good (too much, too little, etc), it will try and adapt to the location by adjusting it's growth to survive at that location. Either it can, or it dies trying.
When you move coral around trying to find the sweet spot you are fighting the coral's nature described in my digression . That process is very hard on the coral. Glue it down in one spot and let it adapt to those conditions would be a much better transplant strategy imo.
And did you add a red Goniopora in the second photo? Those are very nice corals! I hope that it thrives.
Move those powerheads towards the top of the tank so that it will disrupt the water surface to increase oxygen and to avoid blasting the rocks where the coral are. direct flow from a powerhead like that can kill an sps quickly, but they will thrive in turbulent waters with more random flows. Before you do a water change, you might "sweep" the rocks with the powerhead to dislodge detritus that may settle there to reduce the nutrient build up in the system.
Hand destroy the vermitids. I use a putty knife to scrape them off the tank, and a screw drive to stab them on the rocks (be careful when you do this to avoid cave ins!) If you have a lot of these you may be feeding your fish too much?
Thanks for working so many hours each week. If you have extra time you might want to consider implementing some of my suggestions. These are not criticisms of your tank, but suggested improvements you might make to improve your chances of keeping delicate sps corals. I hope this helps.
A. Too much PAR, or
B. Too little PAR, or
C. Just the right PAR at the top of the rocks, or
D. Just the right PAR at the bottom of the tank, or
E. Just the right PAR somewhere in between.
F None of the above (wrong spectral output to grow SPS).
So given that your parameters are ok (ignoring the original high kH) and assuming that there is daily stability in the parameters tested based upon tests made once in a while, I think your system needs more attention than you have been giving it if you want to have SPS. With 80 hours/ work week I can understand how this might not be able to happen, but perhaps for now you should be content with a few softies until your situation allows you to:
Test your kH , Nitrates, Phosphates daily, and CA, MG, weekly to figure out if you really do have stability in the important areas. (If I missed something to test, someone chime in?)
The PAR seems to be working for the softies, but either buy or rent a meter or get a light (or lights) that will cover the whole area in the tank. Perhaps you can acquire a reef light that has a published spectral performance that can give you more assurance than the black box can as far as expected PAR output? Shooting in the dark is a guessing game and with more than 5 possible correct answers the odds of guessing correctly do not favor your success. Get a new light. Research, ask people what they have that works to grow sps over similar foot print and copy them. I don't like bb because they have dial-a-spectrum output and this is not conducive to stability.
Digression: When a coral settles out from the plankton it attaches to the coral bedrock and starts to grow in place. It does not move around the reef until it finds the right spectrum but it grows in place according to the light regime available at that spot. It will spread out its base to gather light where ever it can. The growth of the coral reflects the conditions of the area of settlement. (Its more complicated than I've let on, but this is good enough for what I'm trying to explain here.) If the light isn't good (too much, too little, etc), it will try and adapt to the location by adjusting it's growth to survive at that location. Either it can, or it dies trying.
When you move coral around trying to find the sweet spot you are fighting the coral's nature described in my digression . That process is very hard on the coral. Glue it down in one spot and let it adapt to those conditions would be a much better transplant strategy imo.
And did you add a red Goniopora in the second photo? Those are very nice corals! I hope that it thrives.
Move those powerheads towards the top of the tank so that it will disrupt the water surface to increase oxygen and to avoid blasting the rocks where the coral are. direct flow from a powerhead like that can kill an sps quickly, but they will thrive in turbulent waters with more random flows. Before you do a water change, you might "sweep" the rocks with the powerhead to dislodge detritus that may settle there to reduce the nutrient build up in the system.
Hand destroy the vermitids. I use a putty knife to scrape them off the tank, and a screw drive to stab them on the rocks (be careful when you do this to avoid cave ins!) If you have a lot of these you may be feeding your fish too much?
Thanks for working so many hours each week. If you have extra time you might want to consider implementing some of my suggestions. These are not criticisms of your tank, but suggested improvements you might make to improve your chances of keeping delicate sps corals. I hope this helps.
