Yes to the flashlight; and try feeding phyto to the tank in fair frequent doses. This helps the pods. Probably, however, you will have to have a refugium backing up that 28 gal in pod production, and feed it a lot. I manage handily in a 52, at 6 months, with a refugium and extra phyto feeding.
If you lust after a mandarin, however, and are willing to go the expense, Reed Mariculture supplies pods-by-express as well as Phytofeast, and they're entirely reliable. If a mandarin has no other pod-eating competition you might eventually populate the tank heavily enough by supplementing that you can stop the mail orders, but I'd really recommend the refugium.