I went FOWLR from Reef, Anything I should do differently?

[splix]

I recently switched from a full mixed reef to FOWLR with primarily angels and will add a couple butterflies here and there.

I'm still dosing a little bit of fusion 2 for alk, I've removed calcium dosing but have added kalk in my ATO.

I've got biopellets started up but they've only been running for around 10 days so they're not doing anything yet.



I tested nitrates and they were around 40 and I about passed out. I'm used to having them hover around 5 with my reef. I knew they had to be climbing because my chaeto stopped growing out of nowhere for some stupid reason. I used to be pulling 2x 5 gallon buckets of the stuff out every week, now I havent harvested any in over a month and it's still slowly disappearing.

I've been dosing no3po4x to help bring nitrates down and I'm now around 25. I dont plan on running no3po4x full time, just until I can get the nitrates down under 10, then give the biopellets a chance to kick in.



Is there anything specific that I should be doing different now that I'm more FOWLR focused? I figure now the primary goals for the tank is to give the fish enough hiding caves and nitrate export.



What nitrate levels are other fowlr owners actually running with?

 

[jsker]

There is really nothing to be concerned about, as you stated change the water, and feed lite so that the algae stays under control. You do not need nitrates or phosphates for the coral any more.