Where is the phosphate coming from???

[mbg75]

No sand in refuge. Just cheato, calerpa, and a light.
I figured a fuge would eat up some phosphates while not catching too much detritus because I'm running a filter sock.

Macro in the fuge will remove mostly Nitrate. Not phosphate. Your reactor will pull phosphate.

 

[MikeC]

I figured a fuge would eat up some phosphates while not catching too much detritus because I'm running a filter sock.

It will eat up some nitrates but don't forget you need to harvest the chato to get it out of the tank.
IMOP this is better done with frequent water changes,get ride of the chato and make sure no detritus is settling in the fuge.
Remember if your chato is growing you have too manny nutrients in the tank.
Siphon and water changes until the bacteria has time to equalize.

 

[Raul]

Yes. I change them every three days.

I had the same problem. Stopped using the socks and it all went away. Someone told me that it's because of the left over phosphates in our washers that the detergent leaves behind..

So put your clean socks in a bucket of ro and check that water phosphate levels after 24 hours.. Dollars to donuts that will be your issue

 

[CHEMCHEF]

Ok I read the part when you sed you DON'T HAVE A SAND BED
I was wondering when you started your poop catcher (refuge) back up do you still have sand in that? And why are you running a fuge w/ a BB?
I know when you go from a DSB to a BB phosphates and bacteria take time to equal out.
Something to do with the amount of bacteria in the rocks that now will die off because it has less phosphates to deal with because you have no sandbed.
The rocks will leach out the bacteria die off and algie will feed off that. You should siphon out as much s possible and keep up with manual removal and frequent water changes untill things level out.

No sand in refuge. Just cheato, calerpa, and a light.
I figured a fuge would eat up some phosphates while not catching too much detritus because I'm running a filter sock.