Hello All,
I'd like some input. I've been in the hobby for over 10 years. I've always had smaller tanks that I just managed through water changes. I now have a 70 gallon tank that has been set up for about 5 months. I'm having issues controlling nitrates which stay around 20-30 even with weekly 20% water changes. Phosphates are also a bit high. I'm not sure if the rock I used is leaching nitrate and phosphate or what, but I need a way to manage it. Corals have poor color and I've got a bit of an algae problem, mostly turf algae and diatoms. The tank will mostly be LPS, softies, gorgonians, etc. I would like to stock it well with fish and feed fairly heavily (including the corals), but right now it only has two occellaris clownfish, a longnose hawkfish, and an orchid dottyback. Also right now, I don't feed heavily.
To control the nitrates and phosphates I am thinking of either a biopellet reactor or an algae reactor. Based on my issues and future plans for the tank what would you recommend? I have a good skimmer which is my only filtration other than a bag of GAC in the sump.
I'd like some input. I've been in the hobby for over 10 years. I've always had smaller tanks that I just managed through water changes. I now have a 70 gallon tank that has been set up for about 5 months. I'm having issues controlling nitrates which stay around 20-30 even with weekly 20% water changes. Phosphates are also a bit high. I'm not sure if the rock I used is leaching nitrate and phosphate or what, but I need a way to manage it. Corals have poor color and I've got a bit of an algae problem, mostly turf algae and diatoms. The tank will mostly be LPS, softies, gorgonians, etc. I would like to stock it well with fish and feed fairly heavily (including the corals), but right now it only has two occellaris clownfish, a longnose hawkfish, and an orchid dottyback. Also right now, I don't feed heavily.
To control the nitrates and phosphates I am thinking of either a biopellet reactor or an algae reactor. Based on my issues and future plans for the tank what would you recommend? I have a good skimmer which is my only filtration other than a bag of GAC in the sump.