Coral Problems, any thoughts/suggestions?

[Madreefer]

G granular
F ferric
O oxide
Just a fancy name for rust JK that is used to help lower phosphates.

A acropora
E eating
F flat
W worms

I would think a maintenance company would have to come way ore than that to give you a awesome looking tank. It involves alot of time and determination in the long run. If the client isn't willing to spend the extra money on equipment to help in this your tank will only be ok I look after a couple I tanks in my town and really don't like doing it. Takes the fun out of my own hobby. I can't find anyone to take over for me and I don't want to leave these tanks to die if I abandon them. It's the reason I look after the now

[Madreefer]

Damn iPhones. Takes too long to type

[Mike-fish]

Best way to get the aqua scape to look the way you want is to get your own arms wet.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Yorgi

Nitrate - 30-40
Phosphate - 0.25

As everyone else said, I think nitrate and phosphate are likely the leading problem. However, the two values you posted don't really compliment each other too well. I would expect phosphate to be much higher than it is with the 30-40 ppm nitrate, and it very well may be. I do notice though that you have a lot of (what was) dry rock in the tank which colonizes nitrifying bacteria quite quickly, but takes much longer to colonize denitrifying bacteria. Denitrifying (anaerobic) bacteria mainly convert nitrate to nitrogen gas so a lack of these bacteria would allow nitrate to build up unusually high compared to phosphate. The significant bioload you have introduced to the tank in a mere 10 months adds to the problem.

Do you have room in your sump to add some live rock there? If so, I would suggest you add some more live rock to the system. This will help a certain amount, but will not take care of the problem by itself. You will need to get more aggressive in your cleaning. You only mention one powerhead, for a mixed reef that size you should have at least 2 or 3 powerheads with a combined turnover of about 25-40x the volume of the display tank (so about 3750 to 6000 gph) minimum. SPS will prefer much, much more flow. How often do you do waterchanges? Do you have biological media anywhere (like bioballs or ceramic rings)?