I just went through your phosphate hell. I didn't know to start removing phosphates early, so I went 2-3 months without worrying about it. I figured that since I didn't have any SPS'es, it wouldn't matter. After a couple of corals and 2 nems died early on int he first 6 months, I started reading more and more, since the LFS didn't explain the concept of phos to me and I hadn't grasped that concept from my readings here. I thought 0.1 was okay for LPS'es, a nem and some fish. I had an algae turf scrubber and the phos was staying around 0.1 to 0.2. I was cleaning that thing EVERY 7 days and it was a pain. I switched to a fuge with chaeto AND bought a solid media reactor (SMR) for some Warner Marine ECO-bak pellets. The bio-pellets take 4-6 weeks to become fully effective, so I was buying Rowaphos and Phosban every 2-3 days and still getting 0.1-0.12. I cut feedings in half (even though the wife bought 3 clumps of Sun Polyps) and started doing 5-10% water changes every DAY, as was suggested by Jonathan Bertoni here.
Well after about 6 weeks of chaeto in the fuge, the bio-pellets in the SMR, the GFO in the SMR and the 5-20% water changes every other day or so, I'm now down to 0.03 or less. Whew!! That was a tough 6 weeks and it doesn't stop there. I was using PE mysis shrimp ground up really fine to feed the Sun Polyps and that caused the phos to shoot up to 0.15 the next day. Here, in Fort Lauderdale & Pompano Brach, we have a company called Eco-Reef. They have this product called Phosphate Super Nuker (
www.reefresults.com). The label says in 3 places not to overdose, so I called. They explained that people with our problem tend to dump a whole bottle in, which causes a whole set of other issues. They told me to dose a capful (10 ml) for each 50 gallons. I have a 120 gallon DT and a 25 gallon sump, so I used 10 ml (lower than recommended) in the afternoon for 2-3 days. Didn't see very much downward movement (lowering) in phos, so I switched to 10 ml in the morning and 10 ml in the afternoon for 3-4 days and the phos went back down to 0.03 or less. I only use it now if I get a small spike after a good feeding (now only 2-3 days a week). Yesterday, I had a spike to 0.2. I'm not sure if if was an errant reading because I didn't re-test right away, so I used 10 ml of the Super Nuker and then did a 15% water change. Did another test after the water change on the Hanna 736 meter and the phos was 0.03 (+ or - 0.02). I think that may have been a little too much too fast, but I didn't think the Super Nuker and water change would make that much of change. HTH. Larry and Kyle run their shop and they are nice guys, as far as I've seen. (No compensation for mentioning their product).
