Phosphates are outta control

salinity now

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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

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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.
 
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Randy Holmes-Farley

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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.
 

cdemoss01

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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

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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.
 

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