Low nutrients and strong light in my tank

[ReefRacer]

I have come to the understanding that my tank is extremely nutrient poor. This is a new setup less than a year old. I bought a skimmer rated for a 150 (ASM G3) and my tank is a 90. For a long time I had only 3 fish which I fed only every other day. I grew a large pile of calurpa and cheato in the refugium. The tank is barebottom except for some crushed coral for looks. I have a dsb in the refugium. I read so many posts about algae problems and nitrate, along with the problems I had in the past with a different tank (I was way off on that one no RO water, glass tops, no sump, no top off, prism skimmer)so I set it up to be nutrient poor. I also bought DE 250's to allow me to keep clams or anenomes or sps. I am not a dedicated SPS hobbyist, although the SPS I have is doing well.
After reading about calurpa stunting the growth of SPS and releasing nutrients and going sexual I ditched all of mine and most of my cheato. I have SPS growth but I think too slow. I figured the export part was when you throw it away. I noticed that my Xenia growth rate has increased a whole lot since ditching the macro.
Other than low nutrients limiting growth of Xenia, the halides are 10000k and on for 10 hrs. The few shrooms I have are near the bottom and hiding from the light. The GSP and coraline only grow on vertical surfaces. The coraline is getting driven off my live rock's horizontal surfaces but is growing all over the vertical surfaces and glass. I will be getting some actinic supplement and plan to use it for dawn and dusk, thus cutting the halides time way down. I also thought about putting my skimmer on a timer and only running it at night when my fuge lights are on. I figured this would keep me from skimming out phyto if I feed it. Sorry so long and please let me know what you think of my ideas. Mike

[imsqueak]

If want to get into SPS and you really like to spend money you should check out the Zeovit forum on RC. They strive for low nutrients and add some pricey stuff and get their corals to burst with color and growth (according to the supporters).

IMO, Putting your skimmer on a timer should not be an issue if you just set it and forget it. If there is not enough nutrients in the water, the foam shouldn't rise up and into the collection cup unless you have it adjusted to do so. Back it off a bit and when nutrients rise it will skim, when there is not enough it will allow oxygenation to continue to provide constant levels of dissolved oxygen but wont rise high enough to put foam in your cup.

[RCS]

As odd as this may sound, I run the opposite end of the spectrum: I feed heavily and tank maintenance consists of topping off every couple of days. Growth overall is moderate to good for everything in the tank.

Personally, I would put some chaeot or caulerpa back in the filter and start feeding a little more heavily. I generally feed 2-3 times per day (general with the fish and inverts, mostly target-feeding with the corals) and nitrate/phosphate readings are still zero (once I clear the rather lush macro out of the tank, I'm sure that will change, but I'm going to be upgrading the refugium and putting a skimmer on it).

It can be done both ways successfully, I'm sure there are others who have the opposite habits as me and do just as well.