Phosphates too high :-(

Hi. My phosphate levels have been running high for some time. I did a few changes recently - added 35kg more live rock, added UV steriliser and added rowaphos - to try and get it under control but it's still running at approx 1ppm.

Tank is low on wildlife currently - 2 maroon clowns, 3 shrimps, 6-8 hermits and 6-8 snails.

Any ideas how I can get my phosphates under control?

Thanks

 

are you using ro\di water? and whats your feedin like?

 

Are you using tapwater or RO/DI water?
What do you feed? How much do you feed?
What kind of skimmer do you have?

 

Yes I'm using RO water only.

I tend to feed flake once a day and frozen shrimp blocks (about half a block) once a day.

The aquarium is a 240L bow-front aquarium with 90L sump.

All other parameters are good - NO2 @ zero, NO3 @ zero, Ammonia zero, pH 8.3.

 

Oh - and skimmer is an Aqua One skimmer (not sure of model name).

Sump has chaeto and caulerpa

 

How old is the tank? How deep is your sand bed? Did you use CC sand?

 

Tank's been running about 7 months. I'm using live sand and it's approx 1 inch deep.

 

you put some mangrooves in there but you still need to find out where the phosphate is coming from try feeding less and I like to use pellets instead of flakes jmo

 

Sounds like your sand is leeching PO4. You can check this by taking a handful and rinse with RO water then soak in some RO over night then measure PO4 to see if any PO4 has leeched out. Do you have excessive amounts of algae growing on your sand or rocks?

 

it could also be leaching from the rocks. have you considered adding a reactor?