WOW it's been practically 3 years since I've started this tank!
What worked for me - dosing kalk as part of the ATO, feeding the system NutraPlus Complete Feed as well as dosing vodka. At one point in time or another I have stop feeding/dosing and I have seen negative effect in the system, once I restarted with them the system tends to get better.
Things that I've changed - lighting system from 250DE MH to 6 bulb T5 fixture. Even thought I've always thought of changing to T5 before I've always procrastinated, the turning point or what have forced me to move forward was when the UV glass from the MH broke. The other thing that I've change was salt, I moved from IO to Kent, so far i've used close to 400 gallons (2 boxes) of the kent salt. Overall I have to say the system is more stable and am starting to see a lot of growth again as well as the corals are starting to color up again.
looking back here is how the system look in 2009 when I first set it up.....
August 17th, 2009
September 3rd, 2009
..... the system in 2010
May 13th, 2010
Dec. 18th, 2010 - from my point of view this is what am still trying to achieve again
..... the system in 2011
January 12th, 2011 - user error dosing pump put around 1/2 to 3/4 gallon of ALK in the system
July 27th, 2011 - the lowest point of the system looking back this is the result of the UV glass breaking as well as a bad batch of salt
Winter 2011/2012 - the system is starting to recover again
..... the system in 2012
August 6th, 2012 - the system has done a complete 360 compare to last summer from my point of view
side note, funny how this two photos was taken with 2 ATI Coral+ bulb only, the color of all the corals with the exception of that pink looking birdsnest is correct.
Next steps - prune some of the larger colony such as that birdsnest to make room for more colourful sticks!!!!