Frogspawn Deflation & Snail Exodus

[KaiPono]

I’m new to corals with a ~4 month old 20 gallon AIO. Water has been stable for months, clown pair & GSP doing well, and the CUC was keeping up. I noticed coralline starting on the rocks and then GHA took hold (unfortunately). LFS suggested I get more stock to balance heavier feeding & level out the nutrient peaks (hence the GHA).

Added last week: Wheeler Goby & Pistol pair, Fire Shrimp, TSB, Frogspawn, and a tiny Red Banded Pistol (it was sent by mistake).

1. Red Banded Pistol is MIA (assuming it lost the battle against its larger pistol)
2. Clowns pestered the Tailspot and starved/stressed it by day 6.
3. Wheeler, Pistol & Fire Shrimp happy as can be.
4. Frogspawn started happy, but now very grumpy.
5. All snails, including nassarius, abandoned the sand bend and hung out near the waterline.

The changes:
1. I added Chemi-Pure Elite 3 days ago to pull phosphates down from 0.12 to 0.04 over 2 days. Pulled it out of fear and now I sit at 0.07.
2. Adjusted Alk from 7.4 to 8.0 today with baking soda after reading about low alk on Euphyllia.
3. Heavily fed frozen mysis. Snails seemed mostly satisfied & returned to sand, but no changes on the coral.

Current Stats:
Cal 410
Alk 7.4 adjusted to 8.0
Mag 1340
Pho 0.07
Nit 10
Sal 1.025
Ph 8.15

Did I screw something up or do I need to learn some patience? Appreciate any and all feedback!!

 

[slingfox]

Sounds like a lot of changes in a short period of time. At 4 months you may just be starting to enter the ugly phase which can be tough on coral. If I were you I would hold off on further changes for now and see how the situation develops. You may want to do some manual removal of the nuisance algae if your CUC is not keeping up.

 

[KaiPono]

Sounds like a lot of changes in a short period of time. At 4 months you may just be starting to enter the ugly phase which can be tough on coral. If I were you I would hold off on further changes for now and see how the situation develops. You may want to do some manual removal of the nuisance algae if your CUC is not keeping up.

Thanks for the perspective. I was surprised by the advice to add more fish, but I’ll take the learnings and slow down. I’ve removed some algae off the GSP/sand and it grows back in hours. Too soon for a tuxedo urchin, I assume? Would 5-10 hermits help?