thanks jenglish- I just have some specific newbie questions offtopic of the gorgonian... so i'll ask about feeding in this response to tdwyatt
I do have a big crazy kit this guy gave me. The ammonia test is these yellow discs I rinse off, put in one pipet of water and a drop of ammonia reagent. I waited a half hour and it was still yellow with just hints of green in some spots... but that would indicate .015 at best and .2 at worst. I checked this on normal tap water and got the same result (didn't have time to get saltwater together). So either his test kit is bad because i get these results constantly, or the test at the store was messed up because they said .75ish. I'll purchase a new test kit as suggested and see what results I get then.
Everything looks phenomenal, healthy, polyps all out, frogspawn huge and vibrant, gorgonian has all polyps out almost all the time in the day and evening, brains look good, ricordia all happy and vibrant... and my candy cane coral is finally all coming out ... the only thing that doesn't look good is the bit of brown algae growing on some parts of the rock- this I have heard could be diatoms and are somewhat normal for this period (one month after the tank was broken down and moved).
One thing I think I may have done- and please advise on this- is the sand in this tank is very shallow- about 1" and less in some spots. Only 1/3 of the total sand is in a siftable area- the rest is under large rock, so I have sifted it pretty throughly in my weekly water changes. Cold this lead to higher ammonia? How much f the green nastiness do I want to suck out of the sand when I do these frequent water changes vs down the road when I have to do them less often?
Ok, I think the iodine thing may definitely be a mistake I have made. I will stop using it altogether. Is there a time when I will need to consider using it again and in what amount? Half capful a month? Or nothing at all?
As for the food, the food was what the previous owner used exclusively for a year. And I don't know how much he fed it when he was more devoted (he owned tanks for 8 years but they gave up the hobby because of cost, reef damage, and so they can travel more) to the tank, but he said he was feeding a half frozen cube per WEEK. But said I cold do every other day. The people at the pet store said feed every day... so I started to feed a little more. I fed a half cube every day recently, then they gave me the omega small pellets and I fed one day some pellets, the next half cube of food. And even more recently (the days preceeding this ammonia test) I was feeding the brains and ricordia themselves with a few pellets for the brains and 1 for each of the 4 ricordias... plus some a few pellets each for the clowns and then the shrimp cleaned house on any leftovers.
SO
With that being said, should I cut way back on feeding and instead focus on the liquid foods he gave me. They are:
Kent Microvert
Kent Coralvite
and the tech 1 which is iodine which i am stopping
The coralvite says 1 to 2 teaspoons per 50 gallons every week depending on animal load. So I assume 3/4 teaspoon a week or so for my 28?
The Microvert says 1-3 drops per gallon up to 3 times per week. 1 drop is 1/2 teaspoon in a 55 gallon aquarium. So I would assume about 1/4 teaspoon twice a week?
Then the frozen food? Wold you suggest I try another type? I have 2 clowns and the rest are all the brains and things (and I dont know enough about what I have to be specific on my total tank load. I can supply a full list but dont know if I need to go into that much detail for you to know.
Ok... that's a lot to answer... I dont mean to ask so many questions but I want to get this right (mostly so I dont have to continue to worry about it!
). I want this tank to succeed. Thanks for your attention to my questions.
Andrew
The gorgonian has a slight amount of brown algae on it again. What the heck? I have some in the tank, but it isnt bad- it isnt growing all over the place but it does cover my powerheads and such enough that I want to clean every few days to get the brown off... My gorgonian is in a large amount of current- it is constantly leaning away from the current and waving a bit... argh... this is so frustrating. There wasnt a bit at all yesterday as far as I noticed... It is just starting to attach to it again. What is my best course of action? 
