Phosphates are outta control

[salinity now]

I am having an absolutely terrible time and I'm just not sure where to go from here.
Recently discovered my massive cyano issues are caused by INSANE levels of phosphates in all of my tanks, they are higher than the API test can even read, but I have absolutely no idea why.
I'm unsure if discussions like this are allowed here, but I've scowered the internet everywhere and I am just not finding anything at all.
I have 4 freshwater tanks, they all have phosphates over 10.0 ppm, even after fasting for days after doing large water changes, it will not go back down for more than 24 hours. Filters are all clean, substrate is clean, they all have one piece of driftwood and floating plants. I fear doing any more deep cleaning and risking my cycle being demolished because of it, I've already cleaned all media bags, sponges, and filters.
There are periods where my tap water is being flushed with phosphates, but even on days where the phosphates from the tap are only 0.2 max, if I leave that in a bucket overnight, with literally nothing else in it, it rises overnight to 3.0 or more.

??????????? What is happening ?????????????
I have phosphguard in media bags for a week now and it has seemed to make absolutely zero difference, or if it has, it's been undetectably so. I only put that in two tanks because I am aware if it exhausts itself it will just leech the phosphates back into the water, but all of the tanks are reading equally as insane, even just 2 days after 60% water change.

I wanted to post someplace not specific to reef aquariums as I know I really don't belong here, but I can really only find people discussing this type of issues on reef forums.
I mean, I want to fix this issue, but I have no idea what's causing it, I don't feel like driftwood and plants are enough to produce so much compost to turn the water this lousy with phosphates like this, and why on earth do buckets of water with nothing else in them also have a similar result? Surely if this was just a tap water issue, it would be bad right out of the tap, no? Why is it raising like this with nothing else being added??

I don't think I'm overfeeding? I mean I feed what they will eat in 2-3 minutes.
Please help me, I have no idea what's going on :((((((((((

I admit I will probably just have to go with RO water soon, I just don't quite have the money or setup for that just yet.

I'm using PhosGuard 2 60-gallon bags in a 75-gallon tank. After about 10 hours I am down to 0.89 with my Hanna checker. It does work.

 

[salinity now]

I'm using PhosGuard 2 60-gallon bags in a 75-gallon tank. After about 10 hours I am down to 0.89 with my Hanna checker. It does work.

Todays report: 0.73 no diatoms on glass. Stepping in the right direction. This stuff works. The Fluval ferrous crap, not so much. Another nice thing with the Phosguard it absorbs silica as well. If you have brown algae feeding on your beautiful white sand, that sucks. One day into the Phosguard and it's almost gone.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Todays report: 0.73 no diatoms on glass. Stepping in the right direction. This stuff works. The Fluval ferrous crap, not so much. Another nice thing with the Phosguard it absorbs silica as well. If you have brown algae feeding on your beautiful white sand, that sucks. One day into the Phosguard and it's almost gone.

Silica typically depletes and is rapidly gone if not dosing it or using tap water.

Just be aware that Phosguard has its own issues, such as aluminum release.

 

[salinity now]

Silica typically depletes and is rapidly gone if not dosing it or using tap water.

Just be aware that Phosguard has its own issues, such as aluminum release.

Today 0.71. It is coming down but very slowly. two 60 gallon Phosguard packets. Will advise.

 

[cdemoss01]

I am having an absolutely terrible time and I'm just not sure where to go from here.
Recently discovered my massive cyano issues are caused by INSANE levels of phosphates in all of my tanks, they are higher than the API test can even read, but I have absolutely no idea why.
I'm unsure if discussions like this are allowed here, but I've scowered the internet everywhere and I am just not finding anything at all.
I have 4 freshwater tanks, they all have phosphates over 10.0 ppm, even after fasting for days after doing large water changes, it will not go back down for more than 24 hours. Filters are all clean, substrate is clean, they all have one piece of driftwood and floating plants. I fear doing any more deep cleaning and risking my cycle being demolished because of it, I've already cleaned all media bags, sponges, and filters.
There are periods where my tap water is being flushed with phosphates, but even on days where the phosphates from the tap are only 0.2 max, if I leave that in a bucket overnight, with literally nothing else in it, it rises overnight to 3.0 or more.

??????????? What is happening ?????????????
I have phosphguard in media bags for a week now and it has seemed to make absolutely zero difference, or if it has, it's been undetectably so. I only put that in two tanks because I am aware if it exhausts itself it will just leech the phosphates back into the water, but all of the tanks are reading equally as insane, even just 2 days after 60% water change.

I wanted to post someplace not specific to reef aquariums as I know I really don't belong here, but I can really only find people discussing this type of issues on reef forums.
I mean, I want to fix this issue, but I have no idea what's causing it, I don't feel like driftwood and plants are enough to produce so much compost to turn the water this lousy with phosphates like this, and why on earth do buckets of water with nothing else in them also have a similar result? Surely if this was just a tap water issue, it would be bad right out of the tap, no? Why is it raising like this with nothing else being added??

I don't think I'm overfeeding? I mean I feed what they will eat in 2-3 minutes.
Please help me, I have no idea what's going on :((((((((((

I admit I will probably just have to go with RO water soon, I just don't quite have the money or setup for that just yet.

Skimmer and phosbond

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

At high levels of phosphate, binders can be depleted very fast.

 

[AKReefing]

It’s fairly rare to have wood in reef tanks at all, and certainly not all wood types are the same.

Didn't he say he has 4 FRESHWATER tanks?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Didn't he say he has 4 FRESHWATER tanks?

That confusion was resolved a few days ago in this thread, but you are correct, and I was wrong.

That said, this is not an aquarium chemistry forum but the reef chemistry forum, so folks asking about non reef situations may get incorrect answers.

 

[Freenow54]

I also had driftwood not a problem

 

[splooto]

Not to discount the phosphate theory (10 ppm is really high although many planted tank keepers will dose to maintain several ppm), but in my experience, that thick blue green cyano can take over a freshwater tank even with low nutrients. I had to just battle through it for many months with my planted tanks - mechanically removing as much as possible. Eventually it just went away. I tend to believe that much like saltwater, you need to be patient and wait for the tank to develop a sufficient biome that out-competes the cyano for whatever it needs.

I think I am inclined to believe this might just be it, I guess there's a good chance I'll never know... Well, I've treated everybody with Chemiclean and seen good results, just waiting to see if it reoccurs. Smell is completely gone from all of my tanks, but was still present in the bubble stones of my BBS cultures, which didn't visibly have cyano issues at all. I threw them all away, and did my best to clean the enclosures. It wound up in all 4 of my tanks, even the ones that are over 6 years old now, so I don't think cycle or natural biome had much of a role. Maybe I just got unlucky with some infected plants at some point and it went all crazy all on its own. I don't disagree that the 10+ppm is likely inaccurate at this point, although via what mechanism remains to be seen. Fish are unaffected, and chemiclean seems to have wiped it out for now. All I can do now is wait until I can properly set up an reverse osmosis station.