When I 1st started my phosphates would get a little high because of the carbon filters after I stopped using them I have had no probs. My water perameters are near perfect 0 0 0-1 across the board..phosphates have never been an issue in this tank as you can see by the incredible amount of coraline algae growth ..what it was is the calerpa in my refugium..I have a macro based refugium for de-nitrification, copeo and amphipod production and coral propagation. Calerpa has a tendency if you don't trim it or keep it on a 24hr light cycle to go sexual..when it does this it releases all sorts of crap into the water that can cause the system to crash. Although all you do is pull the calerpa out and make sure your protein skimmers are working well if your not home to do it the it can be a problem..which it almost was..a tiny dose of vodka also helps boost the anerobic bacteria which will help purify the water as well. Too much and you can kill the tank..LOL My tank's filteration is almost 100% biological..I don't like using phosbans and other chemicals. Protein skimmers and the ocassional dose of vodka that feeds the benefitial bacteria sugars that are not normally found in high levels in reef tanks.
I have all sorts of other macro's I grow..cheato, blue ball,dragons breath..red grape..codo's even some stuff that I havn't been able to identify etc..but calerpa is king of de-nitrification.
Here's a pic of our nano reef tank it's a 24 gallon 100% pure biological..

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Justin Mitcham
ExtremeHogs.com

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