Am I off to the right re-start?

[LesPoissons]

Hi all,

After a long battle with GHA, the finale came with the removal and scrub down of 200+ pounds of live rock followed by a 50% h20 change and 5 days of no light and treating with h2O2 and Microbacter 7 then a slow ramp up of the lights over the last 3 weeks.

Now, it has been 3 weeks since the drama and last water change. My Nitrates and phos have gone from 1 and 0.03 to 10 and .35. My ph is 8.25, salinity is 1.026, ca is 464 alk is 9.18 and I haven’t tested the mag but since I lost nearly all my corals Im sure its fine.

With the large increase in phos and Nitrates- how should I proceed to avoid being thrown right back into gha hell?

Right now my skimmer and uv is only on 12 hours a day as I dose phyto at night

I just got a ball of chaeto to add to the fuge

No additives etc at this point

Should I do a water change? I was on biweekly before.

 

[PeterC99]

Assume you have a Refugium light running opposite schedule of aquarium lights?

 

[LesPoissons]

yes

 

[PeterC99]

Let the chaeto get established for a few days (could be week or two) and see if any improvements with PO4 & NO3 and the tank algae!

 

[PeterC99]

Make sure the chaeto has good flow in the refugium.

 

[RichReef]

I would suspect your rock/sand are still leaching. You didn't mention live stock or if you are still feeding?

I would keep doing bi-weekly water changes until the nutrients stabilize and your rock reaches an equilibrium with your water.