where did the phosphate in my tank come from?

[MyCatsDrool]

Suddenly, I am showing phosphates, which I never had a problem before.

The only thing i can think of is when my tank crashed, it killed a few things. But I removed them.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/s...threadid=960287

What is the cause of high phosphates?

[sir_dudeguy]

what water do you use? they come from tap water more often than not. Also, they come from the food we feed the tank. I'm sure there are phosphate free foods, but stuff like flake, frozen foods and a few others all have phosphates in em.

[MyCatsDrool]

I use RO/DI from the glacier machine at the local market. I'll test some today and see what it reads.

[serpentman]

Like it was suggested, possible culprits are your water source and food. To some extent, most foods will release some phosphate into the water. In small amounts it is readily absorbed and not problematic. However, in cases of overfeeding, it can quickly raise to problematic proportions and cause an algae bloom. Personally, I prefer to skim hard, run carbon and phosban to keep PO4 in check.