Algae scrubber

[tgrick]

2 soft ones

I really think you can relax. The nitrate and phosphate levels that are LOW are ideal for SPS tanks. Is it required to run values that low for SPS? NO. Many established tanks run higher nitrates and phosphates and do fine. That being said, I would lower the phosphate using GFO. Then I would see what the scrubber does. Not too low...I would stop about .25 and wait a week to see where it from there. My advice is do not go too crazy chasing numbers. Middle is fine. Low is the worst, that can really cause problems fast, especially with LPS.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

Stability is important. When I say "stability" I mean primarily the big 3 - Alk, Cal, Mag. Some of the most old school reefers I know have said "keep these 3 stable for 3 months, preferably 6, and your system will thrive. So a big part of that is actually training yourself. That means following a consistent regimen of maintenance and sticking to it for a relatively long period of time, rather than constantly changing your approach and chasing numbers.

In addition to alk/cal/mag stability, nutrient stability becomes more important as you move up the ladder from soft corals to hard corals. Specifically phosphates; if you drop phosphates sharply, hard corals will protest.

With no hard corals in the system, the focus should still be alk/cal/mag and maintaining big-picture stability.

@Terry DeMott right now you have a skimmer, an algae scrubber, and are doing water changes. Make sure you maintain a consistent maintenance schedule. Write things down when you do them, schedule them out for the next few months and stick to it, and write down your observations and measurements in a book or something.

But do not panic react to test readings of nutrients. If you constantly change what you are doing and use media to make large sudden nutrient adjustments, other things will get thrown out of balance. If you are going to do something like GFO/etc to drop phosphates, use a very small amount in a media bag somewhere in the sump that gets decent flow rather than taking a whole jar of it and putting it in a media reactor. Use something like that to take the edge off or bump it down slowly. Slow changes are better, especially when it comes to phosphate.

1) you have to get the system to a point of stability
2) with consistent algae scrubber growth
3) don't panic / chase numbers