So an update, things got worse and now seems to be looking up.
Chalices died (all), several acans withered away, a few are still hanging in there. Yes I feed them.
Although not certain, feel that the tank needed to re-establish. I've dosed several sources of bacteria, introduced a lot of simpler corals (pallies, shrooms and leathers), just got my Calc in about range 440 where I haven't dosed Calc in months (it was over 500). Alk has been stable at 8.2 dkh.
My skimmer has been off for about a week. It's a Reef Octopus SSS 3000 that is rated to big for my setup. I didn't design this match up, but Chis at AA did. I was from the school that said "you can't over skim" but I now feel you can - in the beginning. Although I have No3 and Po4, I don't have any algae other than some green/brown film on the glass, and a lot of purple/red coraline. I am suspecting my skimmer is really pulling out to much, thus the withering away of corals. Don't know how long I'll keep the skimmer off, but was thinking of turning it on 1/2 a day at some point. Stretching on this one. I never use to have Cheto, my mind keeps going to what's different on this setup, and wondering if Cheto could be pulling out too much, but will stay the course at this point.
Added some actual reef rock from two different hobbyist sources. All softies and shrooms are doing well. I took a piece of frogspawn from a friend and that is doing good as well.
Nitrates have been high for a few months now, between 25-50 on salifert, My fuge is full of cheto with continual trimming. Within the last week installed a NO3 sulfur reactor. Just this morning, the output drip of the reactor is at 0 nitrates. Now need to adjust the output to get No3 to about 5-10. Yes I'll go slow with this.
Haven't run Ozone in more than 6 months, so that could have attributed to the tank not establishing, but it's been a non factor now for a long time.
Once Cal is at 420, No3 is at 5-10, and every coral I have seems to be 'happy', I'll start to add more coral. Fingers crossed.
I have a Triton DOC and an ICP Coralvue tests, but will wait until things are more in line before filling to send out.