HELP!! really frustrated with my tank!!

ok so my cleaner shrimp just died yesterday.:-( He was probably my favorite to watch and a lot of my new snails/crabs don't seem to be making it either. I don't think it has anything to do with the critters they were fine when I put them in, it's just my tank. glass and the rocks and sand are super brown and just looks bad. I did 2 water changes this week and now have my salinity where it needs to be. My phosphates are still WAY high. I am at a loss on how to fix that though. I've bought new lighting, got a new skimmer, do water changes every week two every other week, have limited the lighting on my tank, oh, am running phosphate remover in the back. Seriously is there anything I'm missing that I haven't already tried????? Please help!!! Thanks....

 

8 months now.  I've gone through bad hair algae, then cynobacteria.  Finally kicked both of those, but now I'm not sure what this is.  It's not thick algae, I can't pick it up off the sand or anything it just disenegrates (spelling??)  WHen I try to blast it off the rocks it floats around then lands again. 
Oh and I forgot to mention as I've heard overfeeding contributes to phosphate probs.. I only feed my fish 1 time a day a really small amount.  I tried every other day for awhile but that didn't seem to make a difference.  I have 2 clownfish and 1 firefish.

 

so I'm reading this article that talks about using limewater.  Anyone ever dosed with limewater to rid of phosphates??? have no idea about amounts to dose??? 
I've used the pickling lime to rid of aptasia and that worked pretty well.  but thought none of it was supposed to touch any coral so don't understand how that would work.  Maybe limewater is different than pickling lime???

 

yep, same tank.  Nitrates are fine, low, close to 0.  I changed almost 50% of the water out twice the last couple of months because I'd put in red slime away to get rid of cyno and wanted to do a good water changes afterwards.  Now I"ve done 2 in a row water changes of 10% every other week. 
I've messed with the skimmer wetness a lot.  It's now producing a lot I have to empty it every other day or so.  It has a decent amount of grime in it. 
The salinity problem came at a bad time, just as I put in my new inverts.  Sounds like that was the prob. with my inverts dying.  The specific gravity measured all the way to the bottom.  Now it's right on.  I'm so confused at how because I had never had a salinity prob. before. 
I use RO water. 
I took a pic of what my tank looks like now and I could try and get that on my photobucket account.  I just have to find the time!!   
Thanks!
Stacy

 

I have the original pump that came with my oceanic biocube and I also have an extra pump in there for extra flow.  But, unfortunately it kind of works hit or miss.  Often after turning off the pump for a water change it doesn't work and we have to struggle with getting it to work again.  Good reminder though, I'd almost forgotten the extra pump hasn't been working since my last water change earlier this week. 
Brand new live sand.  And actually I had just added some aragonite (not live sand) to my sandbed a few weeks ago as so much of it had disappeared when I was pulling out handfuls of red cyno.  I added more basically for looks.  The rock had been used previously in a tank that was flooded but it had been bleached before I placed it in my tank.

 

it's a nano tank.  oceanic 29 gallon biocube.  Have to say though previous owner kept it immaculate!!!!!!  It was in amazing shape!  Just gorgeous.   IT was actually in my classroom(I'm a teacher so was able to see first hand it was very well taken care of.    It previously had no algae probs whatsoever in it.    That's what got me interested in having my own at home was being sad to have lost the tank at work....So wish I could blame it on previous owner (haha) but have to take credit for this one myself.

 

It's not slimy/gooey at all. When I try to blast it off with a turkey baster it kind of floats around then lands right back down.  Tried to do that right before water changes the last couple of times hoping to suck it right out of there with the syphon but doesn't work. 
I just put brand new bulbs in a month ago I think it was.

 

make up water... does that mean the water/salt mix solution I make for my water change??  I just mix my 5 gallons of water with the salt mix in a tub overnight.  Should I check that tub is that what you mean??

 

just got home. things look pretty brown! fish are acting a little funny too. One clownfish keeps hanging out under the tunnel of the rock which he usually only does during stressful times like water changes.

boy the skimmer is sure working overtime though. I cleaned it out and (nice visual I know) almost gagged it smelled so bad and there was a ton of gunk in there.

I'll try and post a pic tonight.

 

invert wise it's hard to tell how many casualties. i found my cleaner shrimp dead in the sand and took him out, I haven't found my new peppermint shrimp so maybe he's under a rock or is alive but hiding well??

I can't tell how many of my crabs or snails are alive or dead. Should I figure it out and take the ones out that are dead? Could leaving dead snails and crabs in there be contributing to the problem???

Here's my photobucket thread with pics I took tonight:

http://s688.photobucket.com/albums/vv250/swacek