3 months old tank, can't raise nutrients

MTShell

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Heyo reefers.

3 months old tank, 220 gal, no fish yet, they are in QT as we speak.
I have the following frags: GSP, 6x different zoa, green capnella, Christmas Favia, Tyree minefield cyphastrea, electric daisy stylo, John deer leptastrea, Yellow tip joker torch, red montipora cap.

I know this might be a lot of corals too early, but most I got for free or almost free.

Now for nutrients: temp and salinity stable at 25.2C and 35.00. My ph is around 8.15 with salifert. Alk is 7.9 dkh currently, dropped 0.3 points the last week so keeping an eye on it.
The problem is my nitrates and phosphates are at 0.00 both for more than 10 days.

I am ghost feeding daily and reefroids every 2-3 days. I thought my uglies were "mostly" over, but this feeding and reefroids just seem to be boosting diatoms back up and a tiny bit of hair algea here and there.

My rollermat and skimmer are off because I want to get the nutrients in, not out. I have not done water changes in a month, again to not export nutrients.

What should I do to try and not kill my corals? I want to keep fish in QT for at least 2 more weeks to be safe. I understand that fish will help.

Should I dose nitrate and phosphate directly? Should I simply keep ghost feeding? I understand that I am producing nitrates and phosphates but they are simply being consumed right away. I am simply praying that my silicates will get consumed soon enough for diatoms to die off and have a readable level of nutrients for coral frags.

Thanks
 
I would dose no3 and po4.
In my 112 which is 6 months new I still dose no3 to keep it above 1.
I have only 2 fish in the system.
35lbs live rock and around 30 frags.
Once you have fish it will help with the levels.
Keep your skimmer on from day one.
Leave the FR off for now.
I run open sumps with only a 400 micron mesh sock.
I run oversized skimmers on all system from day one.
20261016_174328.jpg
 

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