Help my tank come out of fallow

[Coach v]

I have a 200 gallon system with a 120 gallon dt on the 1st floor with a 40 gallon breeder basement sump. There is also a 29gallon refugium and a 29gallon dt in the basement tied into the system.

The 120 has been up for about 10 years, a few of those fowlr, but mostly just fallow. There has been a sand sifting star and a snail since that inhabit the tank since the last "reboot" in early 2019.

The 29gallon display has been up since 2019 when my teenage son set it up. He quickly lost interest in it and it has been fallow since early 2020 (he now runs a 10 gallon nano in his room).

The refuge currently has nothing in it. I run a reef octopus 150 classic and have a carbon/gfo reactor. I occasionally run a filter sock. My few water changes and all topoff was tap water. I use reef crystals salt. I have a tunze ato.

I recently put in my new sump to replace my 'home built" pond liner sump. I purchased test kits and got my rodi going. I have done several water changes and added a few snails, crabs and 2 black mollies. I also added an ati sunpower 8 bulb t5 light. I have a pair of midnight clowns and a midas blenny finishing httm right now.

The 120 will be a mixed reef and the 29 gallon will be an anemone tank.

Here are my current water parameters:

Temp 78.1
Salinity 1.025
Alk 7.4 (Hanna)
Cal 360 (Red Sea)
Mag 1500 (aquaforrest)
Nitrate 1-2ppm (nyos)
Phosphate 0 (Hanna ulr phosphate)

My Alk, Cal, Mag have all been steadily increasing the past 2 weeks with water changes.

Nitrates have only recently shown above zero but barely. I started feeding 2-3 frozen cubes per day plus hatched baby brine shrimp for 2 weeks now. Phosphates have been and still are undectable.

I get some algea growth on the glass and have some longer on the back glass, but not out of control. I have a frie nd who wants to give me lps frags.

What do I need to do to get ready for corals?

 

[Idoc]

I would start with a few easy LPS corals in order to ensure the system is stable. I hate losing LPS corals to changing water conditions. You already have some good water testing kits. You will want to look into dipping corals prior to putting in your tank in order to attempt to remove some pests. I actually keep a 20g Long tank with a black-box light as a coral quarantine tank in order to attempt to keep out unwanted pests. I will keep the frags in that tank usually over 90 days to ensure no aptasia, ich, etc... sneaking in on the plugs.

 

[Uncle99]

Phosphate is very important for corals, as nitrate. Zero is always a bad number, I’d. Bump that to .1ppm, nitrate to 5ppm.
If you can keep those parameters solid stable and unchanging for at least 8 weeks, I’d try a softy or two, see how they do for another month, if good, exploring LPS is next.
SPS I do at 6 months.
Acro at 1 year.
I hate losing stuff.

 

[Coach v]

Phosphate is very important for corals, as nitrate. Zero is always a bad number, I’d. Bump that to .1ppm, nitrate to 5ppm.
If you can keep those parameters solid stable and unchanging for at least 8 weeks, I’d try a softy or two, see how they do for another month, if good, exploring LPS is next.
SPS I do at 6 months.
Acro at 1 year.
I hate losing stuff.

How do I "bump" those numbers up? Continue to feed? Add more fish? Dose carbon?