Have recently started feeding corals as of this month (have tried out phyto/liquid coral food/LPS pellets/aminos but best response from pellets and aminos) and my nutrients have spiked to 21ppm nitrate & 1.0ppm phos - up from 10/0.1 last month. Tank (40gal) is mostly LPS with a few softies and the corals have been responding great to increased feeding schedule so I'm reluctant to cut back on it because they seem to get quite hungry (open mouth/reduced polyp extension) when I don't give LPS pellets atleast twice a week (been doing every other day + daily aminos), particularly my torches/elegance/duncan. Corals are all happy and I'm yet to have any problem algae issues but I have had to clean glass basically every 2/3 days which is annoying & have seen some reduced alk consumption so I'm just wondering how aggressively I need to tackle this problem as ik particularly phosphate is quite high.
Current options are
1 Conservative - Reduce feeding and see how the corals go (thinking no coral food & reduced fish food till nutrients back to <10/0.3 then LPS pellets 2x a week + aminos only on days I feed) while letting skimmer/15% fortnightly water change rip nutrients out.
2 Chemical management - (Nopox/vodka) not a huge fan as i would prefer not to increase the amount of things I have to dose.
3 Refuge or algae scrubber - sounds ideal but expensive
Any other recommendations about coral feeding would also be appreciated because it's something I'm new to.
Current options are
1 Conservative - Reduce feeding and see how the corals go (thinking no coral food & reduced fish food till nutrients back to <10/0.3 then LPS pellets 2x a week + aminos only on days I feed) while letting skimmer/15% fortnightly water change rip nutrients out.
2 Chemical management - (Nopox/vodka) not a huge fan as i would prefer not to increase the amount of things I have to dose.
3 Refuge or algae scrubber - sounds ideal but expensive
Any other recommendations about coral feeding would also be appreciated because it's something I'm new to.