Need some direction

[Wildreefs]

Hello.

inhave has my 180 up and running since December.About 130 pounds of rock (started dry) with 20 of those pounds coming from an existing tank that had been running for about a year.

I have a lot of fish. In the 50’s if I had to count. I understood by bioload would be high, was going the fowlr route at first.

In the last month, I have been adding acro frags, maybe 35-40 now.

All seem ok, except some with less PE. I started testing water about 3 weeks ago. My PO4 was about 2.04 two weeks ago. I added GFO, about a week ago, and have been growing chaeto for about a month or so. With the gfo, and help of some water changes, my PO4 is 1.25 on hanna. Nitrate is 50 (maybe less, salifert doesn’t make it easy to ready past 20 I think) but def 50.

I have a big skimmer, and do a 30 gallon water chance once every 7-10 days. I change the sock every time it clogs, 3-4 days roughly.

what would be a good game plan as far as dropping the PO4 and NO3, that’s sustainable. Can the chaeto , (ball of it in my middle compartment, maybe 14x10 section, lit with a radion gen 2) realistically keep up with the bioload once I get PO4 down with GFO?

alk is kept between 7-8. Tank lights are t5 hybrid (Aquatic life ) that has 3 ati blue plus and a purple plus bulb (4 total bulbs)with3 radion xr15’s.

 

[Uncle99]

Consider carbon dosing like NoPox.
This dose, over time, increases bacterial counts and allows for more export.
I brought nitrate down from 50ppm to 5ppm by using 5ml day Nopox, stayed at 5ppm for years now.
For the phosphate, consider an Lanthium Chloride product like Agent Green or Phosphate Rx.
Remember if your going corals, don’t let either bottom out.
Shoot for nitrate 2-10ppm and Phosphate in the 0.03 - .2 range.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Increasing the light on the fuge will help for sure in lowering no3 but want do much for po4. That is a solid plan to attack no3. The Gen2 will work well as a fuge light just adjust the spectrum for plants. You can dial in the no3 reduction with light intensity and duration. For po4 reduction I am a huge fan of Phosphate RX over GFO. If possible decrease feeding to lower the amount if nutrients going into the tank.