Phosphates finally figured out >=|

Okay so over the past few months I've been battling with phosphates. I did everything I was supposed to. I cut feedings down to once every other day. I started to rinse my food, I cut my lights out for 3 days, I replaced my sand etc etc. I couldn't for the life of me get my phosphates down. I even did 7 straight days of 20% water changes.



I recently bought a hanna checker and started checking everything. My old test kit always said 0. Anyways my frag tank read .07, display was .09. I then checked my saltwater mixing can and it read .07. I thought that was strange so I checked my ro/di holding container and that read .07. I then check my ro/di water and it read .03. So after months of trying to figure this out it seems to be my phosphate problem was leaching from my 45g brute holding trashcans.



I've been using these for about a year now....but back then I was doing very few water changes so I think the cyano was kept to a minimum. However as of lately I've been doing a lot more water changes and larger ones at that. It turns out the more frequent water changes was fueling my cyano all along when I thought it was removing it. I can't believe all the money I spent trying to figure this out and it was the last place I ever thought to look.