How to bring down phosphates?

[bavass]

I have a 55g that I was battling cyano in I won! This time, lol! Anyway I have gotten my phosphates down to .08 but haven't been able to get them to .02 my goal to add SPS. When I was fighting cyano I was running 2 cups of GFO in a reactor, 12 tbs of GAC. I was running double for a 55g. This past Sunday I started using HC GFO from BRS. Using 3/4 cup not quite double my recommended dose. I rinse frozen cube that I feed every other day. I keep and eye on my RO/DI water. I switched from 2 part to kalk ato since kalk is supposed to help dissipate phosphate. I wanna see .02 at one time my nitrtaes were 160ppm and phosphates were high can't remember what they were. But they were bad. Nitrates are now steady at .75ppm according to Red Sea Pro test kits. Phosphates range between .06-.08 using Red Sea Pro. I do 2 7g water changes one on Sunday and one on Thursday every week. I run an oversized skimmer that has helped a lot. I just wanna tweek it to get that .02 level. Any suggestions? I have been dosing vinegar for about 7 weeks now and I am up to 28.6mL a day. Its set up on a BRS doser it runs from 11:00am-11:13am and 6:00pm-6:13pm at 1.1mL a minute. I have been increaseing 4mL a week. Thanks in advance

 

[Sniperhank]

That is a ton of work youve done. Im surprised you havent seen better results. Id suggest adding a fuge to your system to absorb the phosphates and nitrates.

What is your feeding schedule? When was the last time you changed the filters on your ro/di?

 

[bavass]

when i added my Warner Marine MF 181 skimmer, i added a 12x12 fuge in sump with a 6" sand bed and 25 mangroves and a baseball size cheato. The cheato didn't last long. The mangroces are doing fine, I spray them everyday with freshwater and pick leaves off when needed. I am thinking of adding some GARF Grunge to sump. I added some to my DT a year or 2 ago and that gave me the best POD population over anything else I tried. My Sixline Wrasse killed that off quick, lol!

 

[Sniperhank]

Why didnt the cheato last long? Just putting a cheap light on the fuge will so for it. Mine doesnt even tumble.

 

[bavass]

DI was changed 2 weeks ago, carbon and block a month ago, membrane was 1 year. I have 73tds going into block, and crabon, 67tds going into membrane, 0-1 tds coming out of membrane into DI, and always 0 coming out of DI. I feed 1 cube every other day. I have a yellow stripe clown, sixline wrasse, royal gramma, 2 green chromis, aiptaisa eating file fish, diamond gobie

 

[J33ps]

Were you using a light for the cheato it's pretty hard to kill that stuff inless you don't use a light and IMO I would not use sand in your fuge it create a place for Crap to get stuck in

 

[bavass]

Why didnt the cheato last long? Just putting a cheap light on the fuge will so for it. Mine doesnt even tumble.

No idea why it didn't last long, i have a silver clip on light with a 27w(100w) flourescent bulb running opposite DT. It turned really slimy, and started turing white on me, I turned it everyday

 

[J33ps]

I'm using a 14w florescent build and mine does great I cut it once a month

 

[bavass]

55g reef sump - YouTube

 

[bavass]

YAY got my Hanna 736 and it shows 7ppb which calculates to .021 ppm!