HELP!! really frustrated with my tank!!

I just had to post because I'm excited that things are looking pretty good right now with my tank. I clean out my sponge and skimmer cup 2 times a day yet and I'm still getting quite a bit of brown to rinse out in the sponge and the skimmer is definitely doing its job! Just not sure how much longer I'll have to empty it 2 times a day in order to keep it looking this good?


I have about 4-5 snails (astrea and cerith) and 4-5 crabs left(some red scarlett ones that I love and 1 really big blue legged hermit I love! My snails are dying off though, I don't know if it's cause they can't right themselves and I don't get to them quick enough to flip them over. Or could it be now that I don't have much algae they aren't getting enough food?? Do I need to supplement feed them?? Anytime I see one flipped over I right them. My peppermint shrimp and 2 clownfish are doing great. My green zoas are back as good as ever and actually are growing in 2 places now because I switched my rocks around and my purple zoas just within the last couple days started coming back! yay! good thing I didn't give up!!!

I just wanted to post my photobucket pics I took this week to show how it's looking now.

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

 

I really need to get a better camera!! These pics look kinda blurry and don't really show it as good as it is looking. Need to get one so I can actually take close ups of coral and stuff like so many others on the site seem to be able to do. I try to take close ups all it does is get really blurry. Any ideas or do I just need to get a better camera?????

 

Thanks! Yes it is definitely a massive improvement from where it was!!! I've noticed less and less in the skimmer and sponge as I've been rinsing it out the last couple of days. Today I did it in the morning and when I went to do it tonight I noticed it wasn't too bad at all. I did put a new sponge in about a week ago. I think I'll try scaling back to 1 time a day for awhile now and see how that goes.

I check the tank every morning and evening and I flip the astreas over whenever I see them flipped over. I think what happens is as soon as they flip over (while I"m gone at work) those crabs are right there starting to eat off them so maybe that's the problem. Cause I don't think they'd die from just being flipped over during the day while I"m at work for 8 hours right. I watched the crabs, shrimp and even my clownfish feasting on a dead snail the other night. The peppermint shrimp was carrying it around and the clownfish kept coming in towards it trying to take a bite. They act like they are starving! but I'm afraid to overfeed due to phosphate issues I've had, so I just feed them one small pinch a day. It was very entertaining

 

2 weeks ago when my tank was about done for I had done an over 50% water change and I just did a 5 gallon water change yesterday. Even with the lid all the way up the water doesn't smell like death anymore It looked so good (for the first time since I've had the tank I have no algae at all) Hope I didn't just jenx myself!!!!! I wasn't even sure I needed to do a water change but thought I'd better keep up with every 2 weeks for awhile here maybe. I've scaled back to 1 time a day on my sponge and skimmer clean out.


So this is what it's supposed to be like to own a tank?????? haha! Actually fun and not a source of 24/7stress Now I"m just getting excited that things are stabalized enough for me to start putting in more coral/get another fish ( since my firefish died during my salinity scare) Maybe during the snow day today (well when my 2 year old naps that is....)I can research what kind I want. Maybe some sort of goby, a sand sifter would be fun I think.