Larry and Randy,
I just stumbled upon this thread.
I was away from my tank for an extended period of time and my phosphates became very elevated - over Hanna tester limits of 0.90. Nitrate is holding at 13.0.
Some background -
Six months ago the tank was testing 0.0 phosphates and I used the DIY phosphate solution to raise the tank to .03. I was dosing silicates to fight dinos. I believe my testing (Hanna) was not accurate and it was likely higher. I used a Salifert Phosphate test during silicate dosing. Then a little thing called a hurricane came through, the tank ran by it self on a pellet feeder.
My tank is 120g + sump, so I use a total water volume of 130 gallons for calculations.
A month ago -
I started dosing Brightwell Phosphate e to the tank in the skimmer intake at 10ml a day. This slowly brought the phosphate testing approx 0.10 a day. Usually, a random test after 2-3 days, and a bit of up/down, but slowly got it to .56 and have increased the dose to 15ml a day.
The tank is still sporting some leaf type of green algae and some bubble algae. Four emerald crabs are not making much of a dent. The starry blenny has no interest.
Using Larry's calculator, 15ml should lower my .56 to .10 phosphate but that is not the case. Based on the last two weeks of testing and dosing, if I add 15ml tonight my phosphates are expected to be maybe .52 or .53.
Should I continue this approach - 15ml a day or increase? Or other solutions?
The corals and fish are fine, but the algae are gaining so I am trying to lower the phosphates. Skimmer is running wet. And I took the socks out while I was away from the tank. I can restart them today.