Phosphate confusion

[kweigum]

So just a couple questions….. have been having weird issue with phosphate….
So a few months back started a fuge…. Because of high phosphate in my tank .2-.25… the chaeto brought that down to a steady .06 but in turn I had a huge turf algae outbreak that consumed my whole tank…. Couldn’t do anything to get rid of it… pulled the refugium and the algae went away slowly over the next couple of months( completely gone now)
PO4 shot up to around .2 again so I add gfo to help pull it down and I can get it to around a .08 but always seems like my sps stops growing and losing a lot of color… all consumptions of alk and calc stop…. ( using brs high capacity gfo) …. Every time I pull that and just let the phosphate ride I have better coral growth and color….. po4 like to sit around .2-.25…. Just curious how high is too high for PO4? Should I be trying to lower it anyway? Everything I seem to do is detrimental….
Tester is Hanna ulr phosphate:

no3 steady between 6-8
Alk at 8.4
Calc at 420
Salinity 1.026
Mag is 1350
PO4 this morning was .24

just got an Ati Icp back and phosphate showed at .05 ( was .18 on my checker when sent in…. Read po4 isn’t really accurate in icp analysis ) and the phosphorous was at .14 in the icp. Should I just let my tank do it’s thing and quit trying to chase numbers?
Just scared I’ll have a Hugh algae outbreak or sudden coral loss at some point. Tank is 15 months

 

[RaymondsWorlddd]

Curious for the replies. My corals look way better and I have better polyp extension when my po4 is 0.14-0.24. Not as good when it’s <0.1

 

[Stephen Glover]

In your case I would believe what your eyes are telling you. Every tank is different but it sounds like yours like phosphate around .2