Good evening all, I have a 120g barebottom system that is about a year and a half old now. I have been battling Po4 getting high and low No3 for some time. I have a 20g refugium on my system with a Kessil H380 light that runs 16hrs. Also note I use 0 mechanical filtration such as socks, fleece rolls, or anything of that sort.
The chaeto growth has been slow and I feel it does not help much with nutrient export based on how high the Po4 tends to climb. I have tried everything to eliminate sources of high Po4 such as using cleaner frozen mysis, eliminating all dead spots, upgrading to a more efficient skimmer. I find the refugium tends to be a massive deadspot in its own as well as having a tendency to clog the weirs of the sump baffles. It's really just becoming more of a headache than it seems worth. When I say high Po4 it seems to climb to .60+, I would really like to keep it stable around .04-.08 as its a SPS system.
With all of that said I am considering removing the refugium. What methods would be suggested in replacement that are effective in managing Po4?
Here are a list of things I have considered switching to..
- Algae Turf Scrubber
- Chaeto Reactor
- Fleece roller to eliminate waste before it breaks down
- Lanthanum chloride dosed into my bubble kings neck *I am weary of this as ive heard it can have negative effects on fish*
- Bio-Pellet reactor *never used one*
The chaeto growth has been slow and I feel it does not help much with nutrient export based on how high the Po4 tends to climb. I have tried everything to eliminate sources of high Po4 such as using cleaner frozen mysis, eliminating all dead spots, upgrading to a more efficient skimmer. I find the refugium tends to be a massive deadspot in its own as well as having a tendency to clog the weirs of the sump baffles. It's really just becoming more of a headache than it seems worth. When I say high Po4 it seems to climb to .60+, I would really like to keep it stable around .04-.08 as its a SPS system.
With all of that said I am considering removing the refugium. What methods would be suggested in replacement that are effective in managing Po4?
Here are a list of things I have considered switching to..
- Algae Turf Scrubber
- Chaeto Reactor
- Fleece roller to eliminate waste before it breaks down
- Lanthanum chloride dosed into my bubble kings neck *I am weary of this as ive heard it can have negative effects on fish*
- Bio-Pellet reactor *never used one*