phosates and skimmers

hey all
first does the skimmer remove any phosphates from the water at all? I'm so worried that my cheap skimmer is not doing a the job (you know the whole 'you get what you pay for' thing) that said this is what has been happening:

my phosphate levels have been raising lately, so I have been combating this with water changes which looked like it was working. Then I noticed my PH was lowering so I started to add buffer, then I learned that I need to buffer the new water before adding it the to tank. Now I just read that buffering can add phosphates to the water (which I'm going to test tomorrow by testing my new water before and after I add the buffer)

is this normal? is it my skimmer?

 

are you using some kind of RO water or phosphate remover because your skimmer is a protein skimmer for fish poop and fish and other materials. phosban is a phosphate remover.

 

If skimmers removed phosphates, the phosphate media product a lot of companies push to market would be a business failure. To answer your question, I can safely say that it will not remove phosphates. It will, however, help remove the culprit responsible for the rise.

You can reduce feeding and/or adding filter feeding foods. Some foods leach phosphates. Some freshwater (tap water) will have negatively charged ions like nitrates, phosphates, etc. Check your tap water if using it with conditioner.

Try to fill us in on how your run your tank, feeding schedule, water used, dosing, equipment used, you get the idea.

The only thing I could say is to keep on the water changes and yes, keep an eye on the pH and the Alk as the changes will drop them. It will drop calcium too in some occasions.

 

I have 2 pajama cardinals, 1 purple pseudochromis, 1 scotter blenny, 1 med rock with mushrooms, 1 med rock with star polpys, 1 med rock with button polyps, a few snails and hermit carbs. I feed the tank every 3 days with Dainichi Dry Food. I have been changing out 5 gal of the 55 gal once a week for the last 3 weeks, the tank is 4 months old. I have been adding buffer to keep the PH and have dosed Iodine once so far. I have a CPR wet/dry with a small built in skimmer