I have a newer tank, about 3 months old. It seems to want to gravitate towards around 7.5dkh with a calcium of around 400. I have no room for a skimmer so I wanted to rely on denitrating and chaeto for nutrient export. I have about 2 liters of matrix, which is suppose denitrate. Also I have been using some chaeto. I never thought I would struggle to keep nitrate and phosphate level up, but I have already had to dose both to keep them from bottoming out. Not sure if it is the matrix or the chaeto burning up the nitrate. I am a little foggy on the nitrate/alkalinity relationship. Long term I would like to keep mostly LPS and polyps, and maintain levels with kalk, and shoot for cal of 425 with a 9 dkh of alk. I have turned down the light cycle on the cheato, it is growing like a weed. I really don't want to dose N and P, just doing so to keep my levels from bottoming out while I get this whole thing figured out. How can I keep my alk numbers more stable? It seems I set it at 9dkh and it quickly reverts to 7.5. I have used dry rock at this point there is no real algae, had a diatom bloom but it was handled quickly by my trochus snails.