Nitrate reduction help

[zeevelji]

I've been struggling with really high nitrates and phosphates and I've seemingly tried everything to reduce them.

Tank is 260gal it's a handful of fish:

4 tangs
2 butterfly
8 damsels
Snowflake eel
Marine beta
Clown pair
Blenny
Mandarin

It's full of coral mainly LPs some sps.

I feed one cube of frozen mysis, one cube of zooplankton

Every few days I will feed the eel and beta a piece of octopus/clam/or shrimp but nothing bigger than the width of my thumb.



Filtration

Sump:
Clarisea 5000 rollermat
Skimmer undersized rated 90 gal ordered a new one it's rated for 250gal.
Macroalgae refugium
Activated carbon, purigen, and bio beads all in a reactor.
Phosphate pads and nitrate pads replaced weekly.

I've been carbon dosing for months. At this point I'm doing a 70/30 mix of vinegar/vodka and doing 50ml daily. The skimmer runs 24/hr

Water changes are weekly at 10-15%

The nitrates will sometimes go to 47ppm but then return back to over 50. My phosphate is at 0.22.

I feel like I've tried everything to reduce nitrates and phosphates and nothing seems to work. I could increase carbon dosing but I'm worried about a bacterial bloom but at this point Idk what else to do.

 

[Subsea]

Zee,
Are you having other issues besides the elevated N & P numbers?

Actually, those numbers are within @Randy Holmes-Farley recommended ranges.

 

[tzabor10]

I have had success dosing Brightwell Microbacter 7. I put in 50 -75 ml a day to my 120 system. It brought nitrates down from 47 to 25. You can get the bigger containers on their amazon store.

 

[get-salty]

How old is the setup ?

with the amount of live stocks you have in that tank, a po4 of .22 is pretty good.

 

[zeevelji]

Zee,
Are you having other issues besides the elevated N & P numbers?

Actually, those numbers are within @Randy Holmes-Farley recommended ranges.

I

Zee,
Are you having other issues besides the elevated N & P numbers?

Actually, those numbers are within @Randy Holmes-Farley recommended ranges.

I don't think so? I've got some hair algae on the sump but other than that it looks fine. My Acros aren't extending their tips even though all my levels are consistent.

My alk is at 8.6 fluctuates about 0.5 in a day. But the main problem is some days the alk doesn't change at all or very little, which tells me the coral around growing. More importantly a lot of my coral aren't growing. Or growing very slowly. I've had some hammers for months and they haven't split once.

 

[zeevelji]

How old is the setup ?

with the amount of live stocks you have in that tank, a po4 of .22 is pretty good.

It's about a year? Maybe just over. I'm struggling to see growth in my coral though . My alk is at 8.5ish calc is at 475, mag at 1500. (The gonis and torches seem to like an elevated level)

 

[zeevelji]

I have had success dosing Brightwell Microbacter 7. I put in 50 -75 ml a day to my 120 system. It brought nitrates down from 47 to 25. You can get the bigger containers on their amazon store.

I did at some a little while back. I forgot to mention I have some Genesis bricks in there as well that a soaked with bacteria and have been doing this "Monster tank enzyme" it says to do it but weekly but I haven't noticed any change. I'll try the microbac. Thank you

 

[Subsea]

I

I don't think so? I've got some hair algae on the sump but other than that it looks fine. My Acros aren't extending their tips even though all my levels are consistent.

My alk is at 8.6 fluctuates about 0.5 in a day. But the main problem is some days the alk doesn't change at all or very little, which tells me the coral around growing. More importantly a lot of my coral aren't growing. Or growing very slowly. I've had some hammers for months and they haven't split once.

Zee,
Inorganic nutrients are not the only thing required for coral to grow. What are you feeding your corals?

DOC (dissolved organic carbon) is difficult to measure in our tank water and it accumulates.

 

[zeevelji]

How old is the setup ?

with the amount of live stocks you have in that tank, a po4 of .22 is pretty good.

Zee,
Inorganic nutrients are not the only thing required for coral to grow. What are you feeding your corals?

DOC (dissolved organic carbon) is difficult to measure in our tank water and it accumulates.

I feed live phyto and reef Ab+ I stopped though when my levels got high