Need Help with High Phosphates

[LeanneP]

Thanks for all the responses. Yes Myka I do realize the sailfin and rabbit fish will eventually be too big for my tank but they came with it when I got it. They are actually the best of friends so I almost feel like I will have to sell them as a pair! I have been buying the Elos test kits every time I go to Vancouver and nitrate and phosphate were on my list. Just too expensive to buy at once along with everything else.
I have to say that my corals are even looking worse now. Even my hammer coral who has seemed to fair the best is totally closed now. I was planning to do another 15gallon water change on Wednesday but there was a comment not to do one. I would think it would still help to bring the phosphates down as I have phosphate remover in my filter meaning the phosphate is in the water?
My water changes have not been very regular lately as it took several weeks to get my R/O system set up due to finding plumbing parts and then my dad ended up in the hospital for a week. I am planning to do weekly water changes until I can get things back on track. Or is that too much?
By the way Starry ,my tank is 86 gallons.
Leanne

[Myka]

Waterchanges are rarely a bad thing. Weekly or bi-weekly 10-15% waterchanges should be part of your regular maintenance. There is no reason to not continue with that schedule.

Exactly how much GFO did you add? Do you also use carbon?

[LeanneP]

I added 12grams of GFO as they said to use with caution for corals. I use Purigen in my filter. Should I try carbon instead? I was told Purigen was better.
I also have another skimmer that I am not using. Would there be any benefit to using it as we'll or would I be over skimming?
Leanne

[Myka]

Over-skimming is fairly difficult (unless you're trying haha). Generally, that is not something you need to worry about. Purigen is fine, I wouldn't say it is better or worse than carbon, it's just another option.

12 grams of the Fluval is about 15 mL (1 tbsp) or so? That is definitely on the cautious side, but that's good. I'm not convinced your phosphate is 1 ppm though, that's really high. You could add another 12 grams every second day or so. What does the Fluval stuff say is "full dose"? I use about 125 mL per 50 gallons of BRS normal capacity GFO, but that is quite aggressive.

[LeanneP]

Yes it is very conservative. It is at least 5 times that for full dose. I just checked my phosphate level again and it now looks like it is between 1.0 and.5. I'll get an API test kit to compare tomorrow (no one sells anything decent around here).
Leanne