[christyf5]

well prior to having the sand I had excessive algae growth and a horrible case of dinoflagellates. I ended up having to take out the sand and powerwash the rock to sort of "shock" the tank and kill off the dinoflagellates. Since then I've had pretty much no algae problems (except for some very determined caulerpa) and my tank has flourished and basically I'm just enjoying success where I had none previously.

Do you have a full tank shot? The pic you posted sort of indicates your water is a bit "murky" looking, perhaps because of some of the stirred detritus. Do you have anything living in your sandbed?? You might want to see if you can get a cup or two of sand from a fellow reefer to charge it up with some new critters. As well, really work on trying to siphon that crap out. Even if you get sand with it, you can always rinse the sand to filter out the crap and then put the sand back in.