It finally happened, thanks to
fugupuff
. My ~4" E. lanceolatus came in on Tuesday. She's (protogynous hermaphrodite) in a quarantine tank right now- pH: 7.6 (straight from tap), kH: 4, gH: 14, specific gravity: ~1.003. In her qt tank I am currently working on (very slowly) lowering the salinity, raising the kH and lowering the gH to around 9 or so. At the same time in my 180, which is where he will go in a month or so, I am working on increasing the kH to stabilize my pH more at 7.6. The gH in my 180 is already hanging at 7, so I don't have far to go to get that to 9. Once these parameters in both tanks are about equal, I will add her in.
I am using crushed oyster shells to increase kH, and epsom salt for gH.
It took I'd say about 48 hours for her to really settle in, but now she's doing fantastic. She's got a great personality already, her eyes follow me whenever I go near the tank, she's already almost eating out of my hand (cut shrimp) and is curious of everything I'm doing when I'm in the room.
When she saw me take my phone out to take these pictures, she swam right over to check it out. Can't wait to see how she develops.