No3&po4 removal

[Pico bam]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this. I am not a new reefer but I'm begin to struggle heavily with nitrate and phosphate. Nitrate above 50 likely closer to 75 in my frag tank and same in my display. Phosphate easily above 1 likely closer to 4-5 in both tanks. I used to dose phosphate R by brightwells but have nearly killed my fish with it a couple times. I find its not fish safe in the least. I never had fish in my tanks besides a single clown and was never Observant enough to see negative effects while dosing phosphate R in the past. Now fast forward with a tank full of tangs I notice more coral struggling or at least stagnant w/o growth. Long story short would you guys recommend I run nopox? Or should I look into something like an algea turf scrubber? What helped you get your po4 and no3 under control?

 

[T-J]

You need to first figure out why it is getting that high in the first place. How much are you feeding? What are you feeding? Are you dosing any supplements? How much biological filtration do you have?
Overfeeding can make these nutrients spike. Especially unrinsed frozen foods and pellets. Have you checked your source water for phosphates?
These are just a few of my suggestions.
Once you find the source, you can reduce the inputs. Then I'd start with some water changes to slowly bring them down. Dropping in GFO, etc. may strip the water too quickly.

 

[Pico bam]

You need to first figure out why it is getting that high in the first place. How much are you feeding? What are you feeding? Are you dosing any supplements? How much biological filtration do you have?
Overfeeding can make these nutrients spike. Especially unrinsed frozen foods and pellets. Have you checked your source water for phosphates?
These are just a few of my suggestions.
Once you find the source, you can reduce the inputs. Then I'd start with some water changes to slowly bring them down. Dropping in GFO, etc. may strip the water too quickly.

This has been a slow rise over many months. I believe the majority of this is do to my use of reef roids and amino acids. I have so many little mouths to feed. Needless to say I've cut back alot. No phosphate in my fresh water and ive been upping my waterchange game. Its just not cutting it. I have roughly a pound of live rock per gallon in each tank. I believe I'm going to try nopox on a dosing pump for both tanks. starting at 1/4 recommend dose and work my way up. I'm working with over 200gallons here so large water changes can be a bit difficult though they are necessary. My display 7 tangs 3 large and I feed them 5 times a day 3x pellets on a auto feeder and 2x nori. Thanks for the response I'm doing my best to take everything Into consideration.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Organic carbon dosing (such as NOPOX or vinegar or vodka) is a fine way to keep nitrate under control but generally won't do as much for phosphate.

A combination of a binder (such as GFO) and organic carbon dosing could be a good long term plan.

 

[chipchipbro]

@Randy Holmes-Farley I go battle some hair algae atm together with some turf. As of what I can test my po4 istn very high (maybe 0.08) and No3 is 15

Should I still use GFO or would that lead to bottoming out PO4? Just want to manage PO4 and NO3 without always testing and spiking or what ever.

How would you do that in a 20g nano?