Well, first thing, what type of corals do you want to keep? Not all corals do well with an ULNS. Maybe LNS is more what you should aim for.

Your PO4 works out to 0.23 ppm. Which is quite high no matter which corals you want to keep. Why don't get a second nitrate reading with a good kit. If you want to do ULNS, then you're going to need quality PO4 and NO3 kits. You already have a good PO4 kit (make sure you rinse the tubes very, very well and measure with the tube facing the same direction every time). A tank doesn't usually have really low nitrate and high phosphate, but it does happen. The Salifert nitrate kit is good.

Do you vacuum your sand bed? How old is the sand bed? Was it new sand or used sand when you put it in?

The Hagen kits I have aren't good? What is recommended? My sand is probably 4 years old,'and it was half and half new/ used when I put it in. I do try to vaccumme it but don't get to do it as much as I'd like


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I'd like to keep sps with a few lps


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No, Hagen kits aren't great. Salifert, Elos, Red Sea Pro apparently.

As for sand, at 4 yrs for used sand, I'd toss it personally. 4 yrs on all new sand, I'd still toss it. New sand is cheap compared to trying to manage old sand all year long.

So just remove as much sand as I can? Scoop and Sifion? In a 55g with a 1-2 inch sand bed how slowly shoul I remove it?


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Anytime I remove a sand bed, I siphon out as much as I can with the volume of my normal water change. I do 50g changes, so I can remove a lot of sand. To feel better if you're concerned, remove half first, then next water change remove other half.
I wouldn't scoop and disturb it, just siphon directly out of the tank.

In my 180g, I replaced a third every 2 weeks. No nutrient issues at the time, so not concerned with leaving it bare, so I took out a third, replaced it. 2 weeks later, repeat, and so on

Okay so last question can I Sifion it into a filter sock or something? Then I don't have to do the water change, not afraid to do it in one go


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Don't do that..you will crash your tank, by doing this all the bad stuff that you have in the sand will go back in the tank and you will have a huge nitrate spike that will wipe out everything in your tank , especially your sand is 4 years old

Ya, lol, you can't do that. Likely kill everything. Remove sand with the water, throw it all away.