A little help managing nutrients

Katze

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Hello everyone !
So I'm pretty new to the hobby, I set up my first ever saltwater aquarium in the april of 2022 since then I've always had high nutrient readings like No3: +70, PO4: 0,5
But recently I've started to have immeasurable PO4 so I'm asking for little help to get back on track (by that I mean normal nutrients)
Total system volume: 60 gallons
Current stocking:
1 Purple fire goby
1 Damselfish
1 Picturesque dragonet
1 Scopas tang
1 Ocellaris clownfish
1 Lyre tail anthias
Corals: a ricordea, a discosoma some kenya tree corals
-CUC: 1 hermit crab, 1 trochus snail
Current equipment:
Filter sock (washed every 2nd day, if needed every day)
Bubble Magus C5 skimmer
Maxspect Ethereal
Atman return pump
Ceramic filter media
Feeding schedule: 1 times a day half a cube of mysis (the mysis is filtered)
I'm currently dosing: Grotech reef clear for PO4 (3ml/day) started dosing since november, Vinegar for NO3 (4ml/day) started dosing since september still the same readings mentioned above
I didn't really do any waterchanges
The current rock amount: about 10 kg
I'm also having a smaller cyano outbreak

So my questions are the following: Why aren't the nutrients decreasing, and what should I do?
 

sixty_reefer

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You need to slowly increase your nopox dosing to help reduce no3 and some po4.
Do you have a no2 reading? Have you got any media in the sump?
 
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Katze

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You need to slowly increase your nopox dosing to help reduce no3 and some po4.
Do you have a no2 reading? Have you got any media in the sump?
No sadly my lfs doesn't have NO2 nor ammonia test kits, and yes as I mentioned I do have ceramic tubes as a filter media. How often should I increase the dosage ?
 
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Hi by far the best way to deal with your issue is do some 20g water changes then when your levels are down, just do weekly water changes to keep your numbers down. If your fish eat all of the food you feed and you do not over feed, a 5g a week water change will likely do the job. This will be the best way of keeping your corals happy and not cost a lot of money and this will keep you in touch with your tank. Not many tanks do well without water changes, best of look.
 
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I never finish anythi

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Just do a few water change. I feed my 75g like 2 cubes a day and pellets and flake lol and nori . I just change 10 gallons a week . But I do have alot more live rock than you and a bio pellet reactor running. Ñ03 - 2/5 p04 0.03
 
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sixty_reefer

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No sadly my lfs doesn't have NO2 nor ammonia test kits, and yes as I mentioned I do have ceramic tubes as a filter media. How often should I increase the dosage ?
This table should give a idea of how to increase dosage accordingly your tank volume

Thread 'Vodka dosing query'
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/vodka-dosing-query.241545/

I would suggest you try and get your own test kits to no3 and po4 will be the most important at the initial stage
 
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Katze

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sixty_reefer

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Would you recommend the hanna checkers or salifert ? ( I already have a salifert for NO3)
Salifert or any other brand is fine. During the tank cycling process phosphates and nitrates should always be within safe ranges and all test kits will measure those concentration. I wouldn’t recommend to anyone to run fairly low nutrient on system maturing process, later once maybe worth it if that’s the route you intend to follow and Hannah seems more reliable at low residual concentration
 
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Salifert or any other brand is fine. During the tank cycling process phosphates and nitrates should always be within safe ranges and all test kits will measure those concentration. I wouldn’t recommend to anyone to run fairly low nutrient on system maturing process, later once maybe worth it if that’s the route you intend to follow and Hannah seems more reliable at low residual concentration
Hey ! So I have a nitrate reading of atleast 50 or so on salifert and a phosphate of 0.00 on hanna ulr. I've dosed the nopox until today (3,5ml/day) what now ?
 
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sixty_reefer

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Hey ! So I have a nitrate reading of atleast 50 or so on salifert and a phosphate of 0.00 on hanna ulr. I've dosed the nopox until today (3,5ml/day) what now ?
You need to increase the phosphates, your nitrates won’t lower with nopox if phosphates is zero.
 
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