I'm surprised that there have been only two of us that responded here. Surely someone else has some ideas.

Okay here we go:

Point #3   - Garlic should not be fed every day, except to stop and control an Ich outbreak. If Garlic Extreme did not make Ich disappear in 2 days, throw it out and try my favorite Garlic Oil, following the instructions I developed over the last 15 years. http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=71349

Point #4  - You are correct, this is your biggest issue.  The very most important parameter in reefkeeping is Alkalinity. It must be steady between 8-12 dKH. Yes, it can fluctuate within that range and everything will do fine. When it falls to 7 dKH that's serious. The seriousness of it doesn't show up for weeks but we should not be fooled, it's very serious. The product/brand of Alkalinity supplement does not matter at all. Baking Soda works just as well as the most expensive stuff. Why should you trust me on this? Because I'm getting nothing for my advice. No money no future business, nothing, and I've been at this intensively for over 20 years, having seen and worked on a thousand hobbyists tanks and 100's of maintenance accounts.  

** This tank has had good Mg levels, as seen by the amount of purple Coralline Algae actively encrusting all the LR.

you wrote:  I have done much better being diligent with the fan and keeping the temp between 76-78.  I need to invest in a chiller this summer because last year was a pain in the butt with the fan and I'm tired of the noise and the higher amount of evaporation.

I believe I have the solution to the summer overheating and it won't require the purchase of a Chiller (sorry Brad) I need to ask, What temperature is the heater set at

Water changes? 10% monthly works just fine as long as Alk, Ca and Mg are monitored and dosed as needed. Try it and see if I'm not right. Setting up a doser for Alk is going to make all the difference.

Point #6  - Any of these fish could be causing trouble for the Frogspawn: flame angel, carpenter flasher wrasse, 2 ocellaris, clown goby, sleeper goby, scooter blenny, longnose hawkfish, midas blenny, m/f blue throat trigger pair, sailfin tang, purple dottyback, cleaner wrasse, firefish, lyretail anthia, 3 chromis, blue sided fairy wrasse, solon fairy wrasse, firefish  My money is on the Triggers, the Flame Angel and/or the Porcelain Crab

Point #7  -  That's a lot of good SPS that are growing. To have trouble with Acro's is an indication that I need to come over and see the tank.   Contact me at 808-345-1049

Point #8  - The pic indicates that the Snails and Hermits are doing the right job.

This is not LED lighting,right? It's 8 t5's, right? What is the lighting schedule

Aloha,

Mark 

808-345-1049

1. Poly Filter: I did only recently buy some, so it's been in the tank for a few weeks.

2. As I have mentioned, I removed the phosguard I had a while ago, but put some more back in when my PO4 spiked to 1.  The reactor I set up I bought used off ksl, a BRS deluxe that I hooked up to a Marineland maxi-jet 1200 powerhead.  Since I only have the one reactor for now, I mixed the brs rox 0.8 ac and brs GFO about 50/50...according to a couple of their videos I watched.

3. I'm not sure that I said anything about making ich disappear in 2 days.  The garlic I have been using is the garlic xtreme, in the food each day as well as a drop per gallon directly into the water when I was having the outbreak.

4. Ca levels have been consistently around 400-420.  Alk I have been struggling to maintain, and I have been trying a lot of different products so I haven't found the happy place yet.  It has dropped to 7 and I realize this is probably the source of some corals doing poorly.  The other thing I just now realized I need to change is how I dose.  On the dosing thread today I asked if people manually dose or use pumps and Krazie said most use reactors/dosing pumps.  I don't have this equipment yet, so I have been mixing whatever product I have been using and slowly pouring into tank.  I am sure this is probably my biggest issue, causing lots of fluctuations each day.  

Salinity has always been solid at 1.025.  I have done much better being diligent with the fan and keeping the temp between 76-78.  I need to invest in a chiller this summer because last year was a pain in the butt with the fan and I'm tired of the noise and the higher amount of evaporation.

Water changes..I usually change out 20gal every 2 weeks.  Just have been sick and unmotivated to do it so a month has passed.

5. I'll work on a pic.

6. I have watched early morning but of course not as much as other times of day.

Fish are: flame angel, carpenter flasher wrasse, 2 ocellaris, clown goby, sleeper goby, scooter blenny, longnose hawkfish, midas blenny, m/f blue throat trigger pair, sailfin tang, purple dottyback, cleaner wrasse, firefish, lyretail anthia, 3 chromis, blue sided fairy wrasse, solon fairy wrasse, firefish

Inverts: porcelain crab, coco worm, feather duster, sand sifting star, banded serpent, cleaner shrimp, urchin (not sure what kind, just plain..not tuxedo or longspine), GBTA

7. SPS doing well: orange setosa, pink birdsnest, green birdsnest, red fire digitata, spongode.  Montis: pink plating, jedi mind trick, rainbow, flare, purple haze

SPS killed: bonsai acro, red planet acro, purple tip acro, red dragon acro. Seems like more, but that's all I have written down.  I killed some LPS in the beginning too but haven't killed anything lately. These just lost color over a week or so until they became all white and then clearly dead.

8. I honestly have no idea how many snails/hermits.  I just add a handful periodically.  In the sand I have 2 sand conch and maybe 15 nassarius.  A bunch of astrea, nerite, margarita, cerith, and then maybe 6 or so turbos.

Hermits: blue legged, scarlet, brown ones

Thanks Mark for taking the time to look back on older posts and ask the questions.  Besides the dosing issues, I think it seems to be doing well overall.  I bought the tank from the Aquarium, and had Brad over recently to look at a couple issues at he said it looked really healthy.  The coralline is growing over everything very rapidly, and all the other corals are doing great except those I mentioned.