It's not unusual for some plastics (especially Rubbermaid brand products) to leach a little bit of something, even PO4.
The oils and chemicals used to make the hot plastic release from the mold contain PO4. Did the container get cleaned with a little soap and rinsed out with RO water before use
Also, remember that something listed as safe for humans is not necessarily safe for invertebrate marine animals. If the container was not rinsed prior, I would probably discard the salt water and start over after a good cleaning with soap and a good rinse and wipe dry with a clean rag.
Purified water because of it's high capacity to dissolve whatever is in it, can actually draw some chemicals out of plastic. This is typically not significant enough to bother the reef, but in the first few uses, I would not leave the container to sit long with just RO water. I'd probably throw some salt in ahead of the water.
What is the PO4 level of the aquarium water?
I believe PO4 removal media is being used, right? What kind?
I consider .25 ppm PO4 to be on the high side in a reef tank but ordinarily we don't hear of anyone testing for PO4 in their new salt water. We just accept that the mix we bought has low phosphates. All algae, including zooxanthellae algae in coral need some PO4. As you know, the Refugium algae will eat a little of the excess and PO4 removal media, AA or GFO, would typically suck out the rest.
It's good to be concerned about Phosphate levels both high and low. I recently saw the evidence on a Mushroom Leather coral that the water had too little PO4. Small yellow patches appeared in places where the leather started to die and decompose so I removed the little bag of 1/2 cup of AA that sits in a spot of good flow. Within just two days the coral opened up and began to recover.
Lastly, I'm curious why the water was left mixing for as long as it was. I mix up salt in cool RO water and pour it right in to the tank. Never had any problems. On the other hand, I once left a 5 gal bucket of salt water sealed with a lid for 3 weeks. When it was used for a water change it killed the 20 gal tank. Luckily, there wasn't much in the tank. I believe that if I had aerated that water before adding it would not have caused a problem. So nowadays I almost always aerate newly mixed salt water by pouring it back and forth between buckets once or twice before adding to the tank.
Aloha,
Mark
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