Little background, I have a 90 gallon reef with sump that was set up a little over 2 years ago. Mixed reef with moderate stocking levels. When I set it up phosphates where always really low. About 6 months ago I noticed my phosphates climbing and pretty quickly. They went from around .05 to .45! Nitrates have always hovered around 20. In the beginning corals grew great but outside of a few colonies they've mostly stalled out the past year or more. I struggled with dinos on my sandbed for the longest time but finally got over them shortly before the phosphates started rising. I've theorized that I always had high phosphates but they tested low from being tied up in the dinos on my sand. Also noted I have great coralline growth, both the hard wncrusting Purple as well as a deep burgundy plating coralline I got from Boom corals many years ago. Other then that I have a tiny bit of hair algae inside my overflow box, a few small pieces of bubble algae tucked deep in crevices here and there that's almost unnoticeable, and that's it. Film on the glass needs cleaned every few days and no nuisance algae on my rockwork to really speak of.
I've been doing weekly 15 gallon WC for the last 6 months. This did almost nothing so a couple months ago I started dosing live phyto. This has dropped my nitrates to around 15 but not put a dent in my phosphates in the slightest. I run carbon in a reactor but havnt used gfo since my first tank 10 years ago. I had a terrible experience with it but it was before hanna checkers were the normal and I probably bottoms out phos without knowing it. I ordered some rowaphos to add to my carbon reactor.
How much rowaphos should I add? I know slow and steady to prevent shocking the system and corals. I'm assuming my sand and rock will leach for awhile. I'm thinking maybe 3 or 4 tablespoons added to my carbon and then keep testing and adjust accordingly?
I've been doing weekly 15 gallon WC for the last 6 months. This did almost nothing so a couple months ago I started dosing live phyto. This has dropped my nitrates to around 15 but not put a dent in my phosphates in the slightest. I run carbon in a reactor but havnt used gfo since my first tank 10 years ago. I had a terrible experience with it but it was before hanna checkers were the normal and I probably bottoms out phos without knowing it. I ordered some rowaphos to add to my carbon reactor.
How much rowaphos should I add? I know slow and steady to prevent shocking the system and corals. I'm assuming my sand and rock will leach for awhile. I'm thinking maybe 3 or 4 tablespoons added to my carbon and then keep testing and adjust accordingly?