There are several things that happened to this tank in the last 9 months, that have impacted the tank in some way or another. So here are the stories of issues that I have run into.
1) In Dec/Jan, while I was away on Christmas vacation, the CO2 tank ran out. This dropped the alkalinity in the tank to 5 dkH. No idea how long it stayed that way, but I ended up loosing some of the more colorful and sensitive SPS.
2) A few months later there was another big alkalinity swing. For some reason the CO2 leaving the tank was not reaching the reactor. I could see the bubbles in the bubble counter, so I did not catch it. Becoming lazy in testing compounded the problem and I did not detect it until I started seeing it in appearance of the corals. I checked every single joint for leaks and all checked out fine. It turned out that there was a long crack along the length of the CO2 tube feeding the reactor. I was using the RO water line tubing to feed the CO2 and it developed a crack. I caught it after submersing each tube in water and testing it under pressure. Well, that also dropped the alkalinity again down to 5 dkH, and happened just as the corals were recovering from the previous alkalinity disaster. This took out a few of the smaller corals that were affected by the previous incident but were still holding on.
3) This summer for a stretch of 9 weeks, I was only home for 8 days, of which only 6 were continuous. So the tank was subjected to severe neglect. This also had its impact. The flatworm population bloomed since I was not able to keep up with a weekly blasting schedule (which worked quite well for me). This time around it really impacted the milliporas, and one humilis/gemiferra. Large corals can handle small numbers of flatworms easily, but large numbers can definitely affect them adversely.
4) Coral growth was also taking its toll. Corals were overgrowing each other and starting to shade other coral and killing them by blocking the light. This led to me hacking out some large corals from the tank.
4)Additionally I found out in late July, that my nitrates in the tank were completely off the charts (around 80-100 ppm) according to the Salifert kit. The old kit I was using was too old and gone bad and not showing nitrates. When I switched to the new kit... wow.. off the scale nitrates. I retested with another kit and same results - so now it was confirmed that nitrates in the tank had creeped up to really high levels. With lots of fish, and others feeding my tank while I was gone the nitrates level got too high. So now I am working on a gradual reduction of nitrates. This has given me an opportunity to play with the Zeovit system, and see how well it works in bringing down the nitrates. I started using the most basic of the Zeo system - the stones in a Zeoreactor, and Zeostart2 at 1/4 of the recommended dose for 2 weeks, and then increased it to 1/2 the recommended dose. This was started in mid August. I want to do its slowly so as not to impact the tank by sudden changes. Time will tell how well this will work. So the high nitrates are definitely impacting the color too.
5) Just as things were finally in steady state and under control, about 3 weeks ago I came home and noticed a small puddle of water on the floor. Not thinking too much about it I mopped it up. A couple of days later the puddle reappeared. This time - A reefer's 2nd worst nightmare flashed before my eyes .... A leaking tank. In complete denial I checked all the plumbing to make sure it was not the plumbing that was causing it. For the next couple of days I was still in denial.. it just could not be the tank, must be the sump, etc. Well after a couple of days of denial, I had to face the truth... it was the tank that had sprung a small leak somewhere. And of course as Murphy would have it, it was showing up in the front right corner behind the wood paneling. The only way to even see it was to remove a chunk of the wood paneling to even get a look at where the water was dripping. Not being able to do it myself I had to wait a couple of days to get a friend to come over and help. During this time I spent the nights tossing and turning unable to think of anything else but.. "What would I do if I had to drain the tank to fix it". The thoughts of tearing down the tank were just ripping my guts out. Thoughts of leaving the hobby for a while crossed my mind. Knowing Murphy, I knew the worst would happen to me. While ripping out the panels, I kept thinking I know the leak will be from a spot on the bottom seam where it cannot be reached easily or seen and is traveling along the bottom and showing up in the front corner. A few days prior to this I had tried to contact Aquarium Obsessed to ask for potential ways to fix this, and once again had to deal with Murphy's Law. AO was not answering their phones, the mailboxes were full, and they no longer had a forum on RC. After talking to others, I had a few suggestions on what I could try. Once the panels were removed, I took a towel and started drying up the wet areas in the hopes of finding the leak, all the while thinking "I will never find it". Imagine my surprise and joy when I noticed a small droplet forming at the bottom front right corner (where the 3 seams meet). I could not believe it, that I actually found the leak. Now thoughts started to fly in my head, on what I could to mitigate the problem while a more permanent solution was found. I even thought about rigging up a channel that would take the leak and run into the sump below the tank. A crude prototype actually worked ! Since I had nothing more to lose at this point, I decided to try an idea suggested to me by one of my friends (Dominic from Manhattan Reefs) and backed by 2 others Rich Ross and Gresham - super glue. Willing to give it a try, I dabbed a bunch of IC -gel on my finger and rubbed it into the spot where the droplets of water were forming. And Lo and Behold... as soon as the glue dried there was no more water leaking. I could not believe my luck.. somewhere some REEF GOD was smiling at me, probably swayed by all the sacrifices I promised. Its been almost 3 weeks now and the super glue has held. I am still working on a more secure solution. So if you have any suggestions let me know, as long they do not involve draining the tank.
Here is a picture of the super glue patch...
6) The bulbs are 16 moths old, bases and under sides of some corals have receded from alkalinity swings, and shading due to growth.
At this point I am just happy to still have a tank, so I could care less about any reduction in color of the corals.
So as promised.. here you have the full saga of my tank.
sanjay.
Good luck with the leak and thanks for your response. 
I have never been one to fall for the hype corals. I could not tell you what the corals I have are called these days in the hobby.
