Taking things slowly has made a huge difference since my last attempt at a saltwater tank. This tank, while pretty barren is fantastic. I have a bit of a phosporous issue. I put a resin pad that absorbs phosphorus into my filter and it sucked P out almost overnight. I took the pad out because the two clumps of macro I have started looking poorly. I'll live with the green hair algae. Besides, I've a ton of small shrimp like critters that eat/live in it. They don't appear to be copepods (much larger), but maybe.
The only other issue seems to be a persistant inability to maintian the kH and pH. It takes less than a week to go from a pH of 8.2 to 7.5. I was dosing a buffer solution about once a week. For the forseeable future, I'm going to add the buffer to my RO top-off water and feed it in a little bit at a time instead of one big jump. The torch hates dosing day.
Coral update: My corals (purchased and hitchiker) are doing fantastic. My one hitchhiker mushroom is about 1.5 inches across and spawned two other mushrooms. The torch coral has divided, it now has three mouths instead of two. The green star polyps have begun extending their territory slightly and they love filter cleaning day. It's like a buffet line for them.
I just added a torch coral and a smallish rock with about 2 dozen small zoanthids on it.
I also recently added 3 cerith snails. They must be the Atlantic ceriths, they are pretty large. One of them seems to be a hider and one is very outgoing. I don't think he's come off the glass since we got him. He found the mother load of algae and is quietly working himself into obesity.
Fish update: I did something stupid. I bought a fish without researching it first. Turns out the red-lipped blenny can grow to 6 plus inches and is one of the most aggresive blennies... sigh. Took him back. This time, I'm sticking to the plan. 2 Ocelerris clowns, 3 wheeler's gobies, and maybe 1 firefish.
So that's the update. Pictures once the new corals open up good.