I think my success is because I have more then normal (normal for most aquariums anyway) live zooplankton. I have 2 orchid dottybacks, a pair of mandarins, 2 pairs of cardinals, a pair of cleaner shrimp, a bunch of hermit crabs, snails and a very lively sandbed all pumping out babies to feed the corals. Even with the mandarins in the tank everything is covered with pods at night.
I do walk a very fine line between success and a tank full of algae. If I were to lose any of my herbivores I think I would be in trouble. At the moment I have 3 types of algae that I am keeping a close eye on, 2 of which don't seem to have anything eating them, bryopsis and brown wafer algae.
But at least somewhere in the system I can find turf algae, an unidentified red/brown macroalgae, dictyota, valonia, hair algae, bryopsis, caulerpa, brown wafer algae, that red cotton algae (the 3rd algae that I'm keeping an eye on, luckily I have a few turbos that eat it) and I also have the occasional appearance of cyano and the dreaded dinos.
So I have a tank that is rich in food type nutrients (I don't even try to stop detritus, It's all food to somebody) but it's low in nitrates and phosphates because the algae takes it up which in turn is taken up by my herbivores. It's as close to the real ocean as i can get it
