Phosphates

[black angel]

Its my birthday today and one of my pressies was a phosphate test kit. Ive never really bothered with phosphate levels so after testing my tank it came back just under 4ppm and my tap water is around 2-3ppm. The instructions only say that an ideal level is 0. It mentions something to filter the water to get rid of phosphates but really i dont have a problem with algae so wondered if someone could tell me at what level i need to do something about it.
Ta

 

[ramaseseniblikxviii]

As far as I know, if you have a planted tank, you DO need phosphates for your plant growth, it may help if you post this question on the planted tank sub-forum, the guys there really know there stuff.