Help... Phosphates

[TahoeMtn]

It has been impossible for me to keep any softies. I can grow lots of algae though. A LFS on a recent trip out of town suggested my Phos may be high, I went to a LFS to have them checked and they were indeed very HIGH nearly 2.0 from my tank water and nearly as high from the RO water. Next step was a DI tank add on. and the Phos still tests nearly 1 out of the now RO/DI. I double and triple checked all the connections. I purchased a salifert test kit to verify. still high. What now???

[Geoff]

do you have a sand bed? it might be time to replace it once you do get things under control. if not than it will just keep leaching phosphates back into the system. getting the RO/DI down to 0 is a start. aggressive detritus skimming/siphoning is also in order.

G~

[TahoeMtn]

I am going to change the sand and cook the rocks ....But that doesn't solve the problem of ....even with an RO/DI system there is still PO4 in my fill water. I bought the RO system from Costco WPV4 and then added a DI tank and (MB10R1 Mixed Bed Deionizer Filter)beads. I still have PO4. Can I leave the fish in a 200 Gallon tank with no Live Rock or sand and if so what extra filtration should I use??

[Loverotties]

Do you have well water?A freind had well and she had two RO/DI setup and never got it low anough.So she bought the water.

[TahoeMtn]

Good question, but no we are on a city water system, not a very good one. I am sending back the Costco stuff keeping the Di part and buying a complete RO/Di system and put the second DI in line after that.
I was also frustrated by the fact that I bought a dual lead TDS meter and was getting higher readings on the output side than I was the input. after several hours of trying this and that, I put the sensors in a single glass of distilled water and got 27 on the input and 221 on the output. It is going back too!

One further question Are all Di cartriges basically the same? can the beads be replaced in the carts. or do you have to buy a special cart for that, Is it any cheaper to do it that way ? I have a "Standard 10" housing"

[Hardhead Cat]

I had horribly high phosphates in my 135-gallon until I realized my RO/DI unit's membrane and DI cartridge were fried. When I replaced both of those, the phosphates in the RO water were 0. I also bought a Kent Phosphate Reactor for $32 online and added Phosban to it, I run it now constantly and do water changes bi-monthly. Phosphates are now less than .2 - - it takes time but you can win against phosphates!

Oh, and I stopped feeding so much frozen food - -

HHC