Hello,
Your tank is beautiful, and the sump design is perfect to allow for beneficial bacteria homing. Your idea is good, but with use of the Probiotic system, it is counter productive in terms of effect. So, you could choose to use algae to control nutrients(chaeto) along with rubble and sand, this alone may allow for you to keep N&P low enough, based on livestock. At this point, you could supplement ABEV for coral care. As far as trace and Comp 123 go, and as I understand ATI Essentials, they are the chemistry aspect and do not have anything to do with biological aspects pertaining to nutrient reduction, these are separate. Should you choose to use the Probiotic System, I would consider adding Life Bio Fil into the equation, I have used it with tremendous success, specifically in a reactor. You could also fabricate an egg crate cage, and place the media inside the cage/basket, this would allow you to periodically shake the media off. The current setup would be before the skimmer, which is good with running media passive, with a reactor, you can control where the effluent goes. I would imagine an AF 150 reactor filled to the top(7 liters roughly) would benefit this setup perfectly in terms of nutrient control, along side dosing NP Pro and Pro Bio S. Depending on your tank, you may want to use Phosphate Minus to control PO4. The reactor with media will provide copious amounts of bacteria homing, and the effluent can be adjusted to run NO3 to your liking, be careful though, it will bottom out nitrates, so start with low flow and ramp over the course of time with tests to verify. I would make sure even if I chose to run a fuge to have the fuge after the skimmer, not before. The skimmer helps to remove detritus as it comes into the sump, this can easily clog chaeto, rendering useless, IMO. The fuge really further breaks nutrients down after the skimmer, sort of polishing the water before returning to the tank. Again, just an observation. Should you choose to run chaeto, I would confine it to the area where the skimmer currently is, and without any sand or rubble, this will allow the natural flow of water through the sump to tumble the chaeto, making it more efficient for nutrient reduction. Again, just observations, thinking you would want to choose one or the other. Cheers
