Thank you.
I run carbon in a reactor and will change it out once flow is reduced and that could be a month to two months, I use a small amount once a month of PhosBond for a few days in my overflow in a media bag. If I see faster then normal algae growth on my glass I will and if not I skip it till I do. Since I added the NPS I started using the PhosBond but I never used to. I run a skimmer\ filter sock a few days a month during my monthly cleanup as I like to kick up detritus into the water to be removed by a filter sock and the skimmer. I use my 110 sump\ refugium as my main filtration. I harvest weekly a portion of macro algae and use a mix of caulerpa and chaeto. I do bi-weekly water changes. I set my sump up with a large portion of cryptic zone with live rock that helps foster things like sponges, tunicates, sea squirts and other fine filters like feather dusters. This is quite efficient in managing Phosphates and other nutrients and it produces a huge amount of food web to feed live foods to my corals and fish. I like the more natural method for filtration and try to foster the food web as much as possible to help take care of any algae for me. I try and stay away from chemical products as much as I can so I use as little as possible. Once you learn the balance of your system the natural way is quite easy and will self regulate as nutrients go up or down. It is just a little trickier till you get the hang of things. You just need to ramp things up slowly to give the tank time to adjust.
