before i leave for college, am i doing this right?

[Firefenex]

howdy, Ive actually had a saltwater fish tank for about 4 years now but never any luck with coral. well all summer ive been taking care of the tank and trying multiple products for feeding my coral.
I have 1 mushroom,
a favia (they said it was, i still doubt it sometimes),
2 zoa colonies ( one ive had forever and dwindled rather than grew)
and a cup coral

Any advice for how to make them grow? ive tried kent microvert, seachem zoo plankton, mysis shrimp, spectum pellots ( for my fish, but they didnt grow either lol), and flakes, nothing seems to have worked for months. only thing that rapidly grew was green hair, which means im over feeding. but are the coral even competing for it because my shriveled zoa is still shriveled. i wish i could work on it some more but Now its time to leave it in my dad's hands while i go to college 3 hours away from the tank.

40 gallon breeder, 2 coralife dual t5ho month old 10k and actinic bulbs, 2 powerheads one rated for a 75 and one rated for a 40. the basic chemicals are at 0, salinity is 1.024, ph is 7.8 ( im working on it), calcium is 420, and thats right now, i dont check them that often and I know some might recommend checking my chemical levels more often but it'll probably never become habitual.

Anyway, any quick tips? coral placement? water flow? (its a hurricane in the middle where the cup coral is)

sorry for the horrendous syntax, theres a lot on my mind and things keep popping up that im forgetting to mention.


Thanks, happy reefing

 

[Sk8r]

check your alkalinity (8.3) and mg (1300)...but I can make a pretty good guess why you're having trouble with growth: your corals hate each other and exude chemicals to make each other stop growing, no kidding. This natural behavior is fine in the ocean, where fairly predictable currents carry the coral-spit to an enemy downwind, but in tanks, goes-around comes-around. Put a carbon bag in. That will absorb it as it passes. The favia and cup are stonies that need freedom from zoas and mushrooms, that spit, so move the stony coral upwind, where water comes OFF the carbon bag, and the softies downwind of them. Stonies don't spit much---they reach out and touch each other. But in general, its a special problem running a 'mixed' reef. I just find no percentage in doing it myself, because of the extra problems.
Teach your dad to do the cal, alk, mg tests, and how to add supplement. If there were a lot of time to experiment you could set up a kalk feed and get around that problem, but you need an ATO for that, and you'd still need to test and keep water in it constantly, no dry spells.