Stocking sump/refuge need advice

[nightmarepl]

hey fellow reefers, my tank is currently running for about a year now and ive been battling tough dinos for a good 5 months finally have beaten them with chemiclean doseage and vacuuming. now im in a position of basically zero nitrates and possible levels of phosphates. my setup is pretty standard
75 gallon display
35 gallon custom replica sump
reef octopus skimmer
currently 2 AI Prime HD lights running roughly at 30w atm
my setup is 3 chambers left one is skimmer, middle is fuge that has 2 smallish bags of matrix media. third chamber is return pump and heater
unfortunetly i havent gotten myself a hanna phosphate tester so im using API and the color isnt yellow stating 0 its got a greenish tint some im thinking roughly .25ppm

i installed a grow light over the fuge chamber covered the walls with plastic board so light doesnt leak into return or intake chambers or on the skimmer
im planning to take all my dry rock rumble i have and filling in the fuge chamber roughly half way up
i ordered a handfull of chaeto and red gracilaria algae which i plan on putting into two smallish baskets so they dont get pushed around everywhere in the sump
i also have a 500gph wavemaker inside the fuge section for water movement
i plan on running the grow light roughly from 9pm to 6am
any ideas what else i can do

​

 

[Nanojoe]

If your concern is the low level of nitrate and phosphate you can dose them. Brightwell offers both in liquid form bottles. Did wonders for me when i was dealing with low numbers.

You are kind of shooting yourself in the foot running the Fuge and skimmer while still getting 0 nitrate and near 0 phosphate. What i would do is hold off on the macroalgae until nutrients are at your desired levels.
For the skimmer, run the water level real low so that it does not actually skim the water. That way you still get the benefits of gas exchange and not allowing your pH to get low.

Other than that tid bit of advice everything else looks pretty good and simple!

 

[nightmarepl]

If your concern is the low level of nitrate and phosphate you can dose them. Brightwell offers both in liquid form bottles. Did wonders for me when i was dealing with low numbers.

You are kind of shooting yourself in the foot running the Fuge and skimmer while still getting 0 nitrate and near 0 phosphate. What i would do is hold off on the macroalgae until nutrients are at your desired levels.
For the skimmer, run the water level real low so that it does not actually skim the water. That way you still get the benefits of gas exchange and not allowing your pH to get low.

Other than that tid bit of advice everything else looks pretty good and simple!

well .25ppm phosphates is considered high i was told?
and having zero nitrates in still unknown for me i got the brightwell nitrate doser and ive been dosing daily still picking up zero dont understand

 

[Nanojoe]

.10 or less would be ideal for phosphates.

too much filtration for your bio load it may seem.
what is your stock list of fish and feeding schedule like? Those may need some increasing.

 

[nightmarepl]

.10 or less would be ideal for phosphates.

too much filtration for your bio load it may seem.
what is your stock list of fish and feeding schedule like? Those may need some increasing.

currently its a hippo tank, yellow tang, 2 clowns i feed roughly once a day and some seaweed here and there maybe 2-3 times a week

 

[Nanojoe]

Nice,

currently its a hippo tank, yellow tang, 2 clowns i feed roughly once a day and some seaweed here and there maybe 2-3 times a week

I love yellow tangs. Yeah I would say you are over filtering. Rip out the macro algae and add some more fish if possible. You’ll get there. I went through this same situation last year.

 

[nightmarepl]

Nice,

I love yellow tangs. Yeah I would say you are over filtering. Rip out the macro algae and add some more fish if possible. You’ll get there. I went through this same situation last year.

awesome ill get it done i definitely need more fish but with the prices lately its been brutal