Coral issues -beginner

[Nwel99]

I have recently switched to RO water from the advice of others on here thankfully.
But I'm worried about my leathers here
My duncan seems healthy but it's not extending any further then this since I brought it home (over a month now)
My leathers are new (week old) when I picked the two Frags and the larger one they were fully extended and happy as can be . The only thing the one is doing right now are teeny pimple like on it.. nothing further
I was wondering what could cause these issues . I have tested my water . The only issue atm is my phosphates still sitting at .25 . Which is high. I have seachem phosgaurd getting delivered today .
Second issue... my nitrates are 0.. I need them up. I went to LFS and they said that I cannot have anymore fish in my tank based on it being a 20 gallon long. Currently have two baby clowns, small cardinal and YWG and pistal shrimp but a decent CUC.
Here are a few photos attached

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

what test kit do you use for phosphate? If its API, then the phosphate is not .25, its between 0 and .25, you would need a better test kit to measure it.

 

[Nwel99]

what test kit do you use for phosphate? If its API, then the phosphate is not .25, its between 0 and .25, you would need a better test kit to measure it.

Ah ok it is API test kit the reefmaster one . What one would you recommend?

 

[IKD]

Welcome To the community! If your leather is only recently added to the tank, they are known to be pretty temperamental as they acclimate. I do believe they prefer a presence of nitrate in the water as well ( not to clean water ). You can buy Nitrate additives if extra feeding and bioload is not possible

 

[Nwel99]

Welcome To the community! If your leather is only recently added to the tank, they are known to be pretty temperamental as they acclimate. I do believe they prefer a presence of nitrate in the water as well ( not to clean water ). You can buy Nitrate additives if extra feeding and bioload is not possible

Thank you
I just noticed this . Is this Dino algae ? If so now I'm worried

 

[IKD]

Thank you
I just noticed this . Is this Dino algae ? If so now I'm worried

It’s hard to tell with the blue lighting. Could just be cyano. If you can, try to remove it altogether and watch for other appearances in your tank

 

[Ramdude4G]

Get you some Microbacter Neonitrate. Dose that to get your nitrate levels up. I would suggest to spend the $50 each and get the Hanna checkers. get the high range nitrate and the ultra low range phosphate. Easy to use and you get an actual number. How are you planning to use the Phosgaurd?

 

[Nwel99]

Get you some Microbacter Neonitrate. Dose that to get your nitrate levels up. I would suggest to spend the $50 each and get the Hanna checkers. get the high range nitrate and the ultra low range phosphate. Easy to use and you get an actual number. How are you planning to use the Phosgaurd?

Great thanks I'll go today and see if they have that nitrate stuff and the Hanna. And the phosguard because I have an aquaclear HOB filter. In the media I ended up just placing the phosguard in the mesh bag on top of the other media . Do you have another suggestion on placement ?

 

[Ramdude4G]

Great thanks I'll go today and see if they have that nitrate stuff and the Hanna. And the phosguard because I have an aquaclear HOB filter. In the media I ended up just placing the phosguard in the mesh bag on top of the other media . Do you have another suggestion on placement ?

No that should be fine. Better if you have a d a reactor but as long as you get good flow through it you're good. But test every day and get your numbers right and pull the phosguard out. You don't want to go to 0.00