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jb,
You are right...it does take a great deal of live rock. 65 lb and a small culture of pods more than sufficed. The only reason I use a 55 is a lack of space in my home. I can assure you that if I could have gone with a bigger setup I would have at least went with a 100. If it were a 100 gallon, I would never had to ever do anything for it; just let it predate the pod population.
The opinions (including yours) vary wide and far beyond. Depending upon who you speak to you're going to hear that you need at least a 100 gallon tank and 100+ lbs of of live rock and has to be running a min. of 1 year. Others say that you could get away with a 30 gallon; 40+ lbs of live rock and a refugium with pod culture (provided there are no other creatures competing for pods). One guy I know kept his in a 10 gallon nano; he of course was very well versed in the reef-keeping skill and hence the dietary needs of the mandarin was well met. Come to think of it...his mandarin actually ate FROZEN FOODS. Something I could never get mine to do.
I even went with a juvenile (couldn't have been more than an 1.5 inches in length). Absolutely gorgeous creature and a talk of great conversation among friends and family.
I appreciate your trouble-shooting technique but mandarins are too sensitive of a creature to keep. Ich is just way too aggressive of a parasite to contend with at times. For mandarins, they have the tendency to hide in the gills waiting for the right time to strike.
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