Also, I have a bubble magus protein skimmer in my back compartment (It’s and AIO Tank), which seems to be going crazy and not skimming really well. And also, my green star polyps has lost its green for some reason, not sure if it’s the nitrates or the algae but, the polyps do extend, just everything is purple haha
For High Nitrates simply staying on top of water changes is the only way I've seen to get them down personally.
First time reefer here so I made some mistakes but have learned from them as well. Now keeping to a water change routine.
(Below will show my experience BEFORE adding corals)
In my 24 nano tank. I had 80ppm nitrates at that period of time. Due to neglect/long work hours really. It was a fish only tank then I started my journey into reefs after getting the tank back to normal levels.
What I personally did was 50% water change. Waited a day did another 50%. Waited another day did another 50%.
WOULD I RECOMMEND this? Absolutely NOT! It's stressful on your fish! Could possibly leave them susceptible to ick. It did in mine. After I installed a UV unit NOT to eradicate the issue but to help it. UV won't get your total system free and clear never will, but it will help it. Also great for cyano and Dynos.
Mine being a 24 gal tank that's half the water volume, so doing that in that size tank I wouldn't recommend.
Wouldn't do more then 20% a day to lower them down below acceptable range.
As far as Phosphate issues, I started dosing Phosphate-E to get Phosphates under .1 is the target. Ideally for me at .05 is my target goal however, under .1 is just fine overall.
Tangs - WITHOUT tang police ripping on me! You can place a tang in a 24 gal when its smaller. HOWEVER, it cant permanently stay here. Eventually youll have to upgrade to a bigger tank until its at its permanent home. Id say Tangs are great CU crew honestly. They control algae very well! Now I don't have a tang yet. Do plan on getting some but NOT without another tank big enough to house them permanently. BUT I have heard people doing this temporarily (keyword)
I also have Vibrant that I dose weekly.
Another thing you can look at is what Filter media's are you running? If you have Filer Socks are you changing them every 2-3 days? Or filter floss? Those two traps a lot so changing those regularly helps cut out nitrate spikes and Phosphates. Especially if your over feeding removing sponges/filter socks/Filter Floss like it's the death of you would really be beneficial.
My two cents. Hope all goes well! Happy Reefing!
