Summer neglect

Glen H · Nov 25, 2019

After doing the bare necessities for the summer I started to pay attention since the shorter days. I tested the phosphorus with my Hanna and had reading of 1.21. I rechecked with api and came close. The nitrates are 60-75. The fish and anemomes are fine the corals so so. It’s an 80 gal IM with skimmer and reactor. I’ve been running npx bio plastics in reactor. I bought a doser and plan on dosing 9 ml no pox daily. Is this right track? Rest of paramat are decent 490 cal 1500 mg 9.7 kh 7.7 ph. Any suggestions?
Thank you

DLHDesign · Nov 25, 2019

First off; welcome to R2R! Glad you found the site.

How old is the tank?
How many fish and what kind/number of corals? (A picture of the tank can generally answer this question the fastest.)

I would suggest starting off with a lower dose - something around 5ml. This is below the suggested "Mixed Reef" level (which is 2ppm per 25gal), so it should let you see the impact and adjust upwards. Better to move slow than to try and change things quick. As the saying goes; "Nothing good in reefing happens fast."

Adding NO3: PO4-X will help to reduce the levels that exist, but you may also want to evaluate what you are adding in. If you are over-feeding, reducing that will often help as much (or more) than adding in chemicals. The less you have to add into the tank to keep it stable, the less things can go wrong with the tank.

Glen H · Nov 25, 2019

T
Tank is 2 years old. A few leathers,zoos and palys. Odd thing is I was told clams and flame scallops were very sensitive to water parameters and they’ve been in tank 1 1/2 years

DLHDesign · Nov 25, 2019

Nice looking tank!

Whatever action you take, I would suggest going slower than slow. Change one thing at a time, give it a few months, evaluate it the entire time, then change something else (or adjust that one thing). The less you change, the easier it will be to evaluate the result of that change. It will also often be easier to revert any problems that do come up.