Fresh2o
Aquarium Advice Addict
It's interesting that the default 1ml/10g has gotten you to 2ppm phosphate but it only gets me to .5ppm or less...
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Early on I was getting 1.0 ppm phosphate. Thus, I doubled up on the macros for a while. Then I scaled back. Not sure if that is what caused the jump from 1 to 2. But it should go back down. You could try a baseline test by adding 1 mL macros to 10 gallons of treated water in another tank, Rubbermaid container, etc. See if you are getting the same 0.5 ppm as in your tank.
Just though of something...how long has your tank been running? Mine has been running with EcoComplete for about 21 months. There was an 18 month period where NO substrate vacuuming occurred. Perhaps the accumulation of fish and snail waste in the EC is contributing to the phosphate value.