Phosphates sitting at 0.21 Need advice

[ScottyD36]

So I have a 13.5 gallon evo all in one tank. I set my tank up in June. From day 1 my phosphates have been 0.21-0.25. No matter what I have done my Phosphates never go down. I have upgrade the chambers and even the pump. I did more frequent water changes in hopes that would lower them to basically little to any change. In my tank I have 1 clown fish, one tail spot blenny, one wheeler goby with a pistol shrimp and then my CUC crew. I have about 1o corals in my tank. MY tank is clean I dont have any massive outbreaks of nuisance algae and my corals and fish are all healthy. This is where my question comes up. If my tank is fine and doing well at this phosphate level, should I be concerned trying to lower it to the .05-.1 levels that most people shoot for in reef tanks or should I be content on this number and not go crazy trying to lower it. Thanks for any advice below if a picture of my tank this morning. I have a little algae on the glass I have to scrape off.

 

[Gravity]

A bag of GFO in the back chamber should do the trick. Just be careful not use too much and strip it to zero. If your nitrate is low it’s probably not a maintenance issue. If you feed coral food (reef roids/reef chili) those can be high in phosphate. It also wouldn’t hurt to check a fresh mix of salt water to make sure that the water or salt doesn’t have a high phosphate concentration.

 

[ScottyD36]

A bag of GFO in the back chamber should do the trick. Just be careful not use too much and strip it to zero. If your nitrate is low it’s probably not a maintenance issue. If you feed coral food (reef roids/reef chili) those can be high in phosphate. It also wouldn’t hurt to check a fresh mix of salt water to make sure that the water or salt doesn’t have a high phosphate concentration.

I do use Reef Chili once a week. I have Chemi Pure Elite currently in my first chamber. My nitrate sits at 5. I am going to check the saltwater mix I get. My tank being small I just get the box of Imgatarium Pacific Ocean Water. I think I will test it to see what is in it.

 

[Uncle99]

Some tests can’t read well for phosphate and may “stick” to a colour even though it’s lower. Hanna ULR is all I would trust.
I think your level is fine, I take stability over exactness.
This tank runs .25 as per Salifert and Seachem for 4 years. Hanna say it’s 0.05.

 

[Reef.]

The reef roids/chilli add a lot of phosphate! I would consider if you really need to be adding that? That one change could reduce the PO4 level quite a bit but reducing PO4 is a slow process so any change will be slow to see the change it has made.