hmm okay :)
well we have a 46g bow front tank, been running since july. we have a crappy toms aquarium skimmer/pump combo.. with an auto fill
( we think our lfs.. just sells us the stuff that benefits him at the time.. we had no idea the pump was not very good.. lesson learned)
we have koralia powerheads 1,2,3 (we were having cyano problems.. so we were told to add anohter powerhead and reduce our lighting time do you think this is too much flow for our tank?)
we keep our temp at 79-80, sg 1.025 ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate less than 5
we have about 40lbs of live rock
2 clownfish, 2 bengai cardinals, peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp various hermit crabs, 1 turbo snail, and 3 sand sifting snails
we just added a small green striped mushroom colony, and a small button polyp colony. we leave our lights on for 8 hours. we do weekly water changes of 10g ( is this too much?? ) we have a double t5 fixture anything else you need me to add?

My peppermint shrimp was picking at the tentacles on my new plate yesterday. I've now sold him off to another person with a FOWLR setup. He did clean up all the aptaista in the tank nicely, but I didn't want him bothering my corals.

this peppermint shrimp wont leave the rock! hes demolished one full mushroom now.. and it looks like hes starting on another one. sigh.
we might have to do the same thing and sell this lil guy and sell him.
is he not getting enough food.. and deciding to tear up our mushrooms ? is there anything i can do to prevent him from wrecking the whole new coral?

i have no idea why your shrimp is misbehaving. but to protect the coral, try to cover it with something like a small blueberry basket from the grocery store or a plastic water bottle cut in half. or whatever you come up with.

mushrooms are pretty tough and can come back from almost nothing.

You should also be testing for calcium, magnesium, alkalinity and ph. Not too sure about that skimmer. Never heard of it. Assume it is a HOB. The flow is not too much. I really don't think that you have a peppermint shrimp, sounds more like a camelback. I would recommend you take it back to the LFS you got it from and than go find another LFS. I'm sure there is members on here that can direct you to a good one in your area. If you find a coral you like most places will let you put a hold on it. Do some research on it and than decide if you have the proper means to keep it alive and thriving and if it is compatible with other things in your tank. A good book to start with is The Conscientious Marine Aquarist. A little research saves alot of money and heartache.

ah thats a good idea.. will cover it up right away.
thank you all for the great advice.

thank you for being so helpful! we do test our ph, but not our calcium and mg. we do have test kits for it.. so we will begin doing so.
my shrimp is very translucent. there are two markings on it that it says from your articles that help to tell its a peppermint shrimp.. so im very certain its a peppermint. Am just keeping an eye on him.. if he continues to pick at the mushroom i will take him back to our LFS
thanks again!!