I better invest in some copepods. And it wouldnt hurt to have a bit of live plant in my sump. I will add a couple smaller live rock to hold it in place, so the plants wont plug my lil pumps. I also have a protein skimmer on the side of my sump. So, if I feed copepods, I shouldnt have to feed much in the line of pellet or flaked food? Which could help in the phosphate and Ph levels, I imagine. I now have set aside the dead phytoplan and have gotten live refrigerated phyto, live refrigerated rotifiers, and also refrigerated zppxanthellae boost. The phyto and rotifiers I add about a teas. in the evening. The live rotifiers after the lights are out. And the zooxantellae booster about once a week. I just started this program two evenings back.
My tank was a year old when I moved it by car with more thanhalf the water, all the live sand and rock and one blue tang, sand sifter, gromme, clown, sea serpent, and skunk shrimp and many many lil crabs. It is a 46 gallon bowfront. We drove it home 10 hours and reset up that night, with water that I had prepared days before. We used all the water we brought back and added the rest of the premade here. It sat overnight with the live sand and perked. In the morning we added the rock and stock. I have not lost one of the original as of yet. Whoa...but, my alkaline and high KH water is now running solely. It has been 2 months since setup. After the first month I added one hawkfish and one long spined sea urchin as well as a banded coral shrimp. The banded shrimp is now in my guarantee tank as he became to aggresive at night to my skunk. And, because my sea urchin poops, poops, poops...I put him in my quaranteen tank for the time being as my phosphate levels have been to high. He was showing signs of spine loss with my water quality. I will need to watch him closely. So, my next step is order a RO DI system and before that arrives probably get some culligan RO water or something to tide things in the meantime. A few of my corals are looking sad. Its definately a do or die period...
Thanks for all your info and being there....Lots of good advice, thanks...always appreciated.
B and S