how to lower phosphate

My phosphate is slightly elevated.I dont remember the number off hand but its in the green with my test kits. i have a

24g jbj nano

i have a ton of snails and crabs
1clown
1 mandarin goby
1 coral banded

in my filter chambers i have cheato that i cant seem to keep alive i assuming because there is no light back there?
and a chunk of live rock and in the first chamber i have a cotton filter with carbon from an old HOB fiter

when i do changes i do not use RO water.Is that my problem?

 

my po4 was quite high a while ago,i used rowaphos as 3 reefers recommended and it worked great.

 

I would say your problem is most likely your water source. Also keep changing the floss regularly as it can build up detritus quickly and pollute the tank.Carbon should also be changed regularly.

 

Water source isn't helping that's for sure...

IN addition,
What are you calling "high" whats the actual reading?

What, how, how often and how much do you feed?



Edit: just saw you said it was "green" in your test kit do you know roughly where that is? I use the Hanna colorimeter and don't have a baseline to judge from.

 

my wife has the same tank as you and yes a good ro/di unit is a must in salt water imo, with my unit simple 4 gallon water changes a week keeps her tank beauitful

 

Agree, tap water can be very high in phosphate. So can food. So, I would start with RO/Di and then if it continues to be a problem, you could run some GFO too. However, if there is phosphate from the tap water, there are probably other things you aren't testing for as well.

 

I dont think the chamber in the jbj is large enough to support a refugium setup like youre trying. Chaeto is a living thing and as such needs light. Any phosphate removal media will help as was suggested by others. Also agree with the ro/di suggestion. Your problem starts with the source in this situation. Not sure how many gallons your tank is but you can buy one of those water jugs rather inexpensively and get it filled with ro/di through a machine at a supermarket. Although it may be possible to set up a refugium in the back of the jbj I dont think I would opt for this due to size restrictions. A clip on light would probably help grow the chaeto if you want to continue with the refugium. Also not sure how much live rock you have in it as well. Is it rubble?

 

its a 24 no its not rubble.should it be? I feed the tank about 3 times a week.