what went wrong

[whistlerskipro]

For all of you knowledgeable folks that have been helping us newbies thanks. So this is my situation. My 55 gallon has been up and running for about 2 years. To this point I have been able to work out any problems through forums and information found on the web. My tank is lightly stocked as I wasn't sure what direction I would go. FOWLR or reef setup. I had about 40lbs of LR and about 3"LS. I came across a solid piece of coral 3 months ago at a garage sale. I took the necessary precautions and added the base rock to the tank. As expected there was an expected algae bloom that lasted about 3 weeks and afterwards I could see the coral slowly come to life. Now this is where everything begins to go wrong. I live in a small town and met someone with a lot more experience than myself, or at least I thought so. Upon his suggestion I was told I had way too much LR for such a small amount of fish and invertebrates, and told we should make the tank more reef looking. This involved removing the new piece of coral and break it up to allow more flow throughout the tank. I was also told to take out some more LR which meant I took out more of the well established rock. What was left was that I went from about 40lbs of well established and 30lbs of curing rock to about 40lbs of a mixture of live and curing rock. What was left was what I can only think a tank that is cycling again but cycling big time. I did a 50% water change yesterday and was told by the same person I should cover it up and let it have no light for 3 days. I have done this once before but for my Freshwater tank. I'm not sure if I should be doing this under these circumstances. All my readings look good. 0. Nitrate Nitrites 8.0ph. The tank has 2 clownish 2 green Chronic 1 Lawnmower Blenny 3 Hermit Crabs 1 brittle starfish 1 mushroom Coral Pink Tip Anemone 1 conch.
Lighting T5 54watt Actinic 39watt Blue Plus 2X9Led
2X55gallon Fluval Protein Skimmer
3XCirculation Wave Pump.
I run a canister filter with Sachem charcoal, phosguard, and purigen. NO filter media.
Is there anything I should be adding or not doing. Thanks for any help.
Hopefully the picture was downloaded however though it looks like the water is green it is NOT