Some coral questions

1. yes, you test your water for various things and dose as needed. Never dose a tank with something or some stupid all in one thing when you don't know the levels in your tank. High levels of these things are toxic to inhabitants.

This would be an example of an "all-in-one" doser. It works somewhat, but the problem is there is no way it can replenish everything the tanks needs at the correct amounts.

SEA-LAB #28 Automatic Replenisher
* Safe and easy-to-use buffering compound for marine aquariums
* Buffers pH and provides a constant supply of vital calcium
* Replenishes all 15 essential trace elements found in natural seawater

Naturally occurring buffer compounds maintain ideal saltwater chemistry. Eliminates major water quality problems and limits phosphate, ammonia, and heavy metals. Also buffers pH and provides a constant supply of vital calcium, as well as all other essential trace elements and microelements. Dissolves slowly for gradual change – no possibility of harmful overdose.

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As far as feeding, this is all I am feeding my corals now and I can see it makes a difference vs previous foods I have tried.

With six species in 5 classes, Phyto-Feast provides a diversiy of Phyto-pigments, lipids, omega-3’s, amino acids, carbohydrates and cell sizes.

Proprietary harvesting and stabilizing processes keep cells intact and insures nutrients get to your animals. You will see the difference!

* Animals and tank diversity improve
* Invertebrates come out to feed
* New success with difficult-to-keep animals

Phyto-Feast is a blend of the most important marine microalgae, those chosen by universities and hatcheries for their superior nutritional value: Pavlova, Isochrysis, Thalassiosira, Tetraselmis and Nannochloropsis.

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As far as additives for the tank if you are doing regular water changes, you have all of the trace elements you should need. With the exception of calcium and ph/alk buffers,for stony dominated tanks. As far as feeding I just feed phyto as mentioned above and brine shrimp. As far as getting photsynthetic corals to reproduce faster, 6-8K light band for high light corals. The problem with this is they will lose their colors so that once they have reproduced then you will need to acclimate them back up to the 10-20 k band to get their colors back. Personnally I would just keep them in 12-14 k lighting, slower growth but they will keep their colors.

Honestly, I wouldn't dose phytoplankton unless there are either a) things present that eat it (few and far between, believe it or not, unless you have certain soft corals, like gorgonians or something like clams) or b) you want to encourage copepod growth and reproduction. Almost no stony corals eat phytoplankton, so if that is the purpose, that is somewhat of a waste. Most soft corals and mushrooms are primarily bacterioplankton and absorptive feeders (the latter is simply absorbing organic molecules from the water). Many will greedily accept small zooplankton. There are a few other soft corals that prefer phytoplankton, however, like some Alcyonium species, Lobophytum and others. Some zoanthids may also eat phytoplankton. I think you'd be better off getting some sort of small zooplankton, unless you plan on having a lot of the above (or that in combination with very powerful filtration and extra low nutrients).

IMHO/IME, I wouldn't bother dosing much else other than something for calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium. Even then, as others have said, you'll want to test these to make sure they are in line.

I actually recommend against the sea-lab blocks. I have had people report numerous bad experiences with them, mainly with animals closing up. Anemones seem to be particularly sensitive for whatever reason. That seemed to be what most people experienced, too.

The tree coral should start spreading on its own in no time, they grow quickly and will drop branches which will also grow into large specimens rather quickly. You can also cut off branches but by the time its large enough to start fragging it will probably be dropping branches anyway. (I had a friend who simply 'chopped his down' and both the stump and top portion quickly regrew)
You will probably have to frag the toadstool (im assuming a sarcophyton) and frogspawn. You can make cuttings of the sarcophyton, they are one of the easier corals to frag and you can find lots of articles and info online on how to do it.
The frogspawn will grow additional branches over time which can be broken off at the base to easily frag, again, there are lots of articles and info online to help you along your way. Good luck and enjoy!

I agree with Andy. The tree coral (and Xenia) are my best ones for fragging (worst ones for taking over my tank!!!). I am forever taking frags to my LFS in exchange for other things (recent swap was for an anchor coral!!!). I haven't even been that careful about fragging. On occassion I've accidentally ripped the corals off the rock and then thought why not - glued them to some rock rubble and hey presto - new coral!!!

Maybe I've missed something. Have you posted the details on what kind of lighting you have? That will greatly affect your choices for corals.