I have high phospates, like .30 ppm. My sps doesn't seem to grow and a lot of them are green, and they are not supposed to be. My question is, is that from the phosphates?
You'll need to perfom a huge water change to make a dent in the levels you have. Then run GFO continuously. Yes phosphates will do everything you are noticing and more if left at high levels.
i had a prob with phosphates and started using gfo with a reactor......all gone and coral is thriving!! do 10% water change a week and change the media every month for the first few months....thats what i did and no problems since!!!
Tagging along if you guys dont mind, but can one achieve the same level of phosphate control with a huge load of macroalgea, or is a GFO reactor almost 100% needed? Im sure this has been debated a thousand times, but it seems more and more people are in favor of the GFO.
With PO4 that high I would run small amounts of GFO and change it every day or 2. It will become exhausted very quickly. Once you levels are more in a normal range you can run larger amounts and change much less often. It is important that you don't bring phosphate levels down too quickly as this can harm your corals.