Sorry about the dark, weird coral shots. I was playing with a different lens, and, well, I need more practice with it. Let me know if you have any questions!

The more of your content I watch, the more obvious it becomes that your videos are the best saltwater aquarium related offerings on the web. You've outdone yourself with this one. Simply outstanding! I look forward to the next vid, and the next, and...

The illustration at 4:46 is the perfect way to visually represent nutrients in a reef tank. The concept of liquid in a bucket with spigots at different positions that regulate the level is spot on. I'll be sharing this video in the future. Thanks

One of the best reef keeping content creators hands down! Very informative and visually appealing 🔥🤙 thank you for all of the info you share with us. I love hearing/ seeing your take on all of these topics. 🙏👌

That was a lot of good information, I’m going to watch it again. I always enjoy your no nonsense videos please keep them coming.

Nobody admits our hobby grade test kits are garbage. Glad to hear you saying it. I trust you more than most for that comment alone my dude.

Strangely, at least to me, I think I find this to have been one of the more informative vids on NO3 and PO4 that I have come across.. and I think I have seen 90% of them... I do like your take on the subject.

I started my new tank 6 months ago with the exact same plan. I have change everything I do in line with your methodology and I must say you are spot on. I even made a bucket refugium and "IT's Alive!" I have tried anticipate previously experienced issues in my reef, but realize I have never any challenges touch wood :). This video is at my number 1 spot for anybody wanting to keep any SPS. #myfavoritechannel! Thank you!

Well, this video defined what I’ve been doing - HIHO. And you’ve confirmed that something stabilizes at around the one year mark, making a new tank able to sustain SPS with less loss - people with new tanks and limited experience would do well to listen! Great video - I’m going to watch it again to understand parts of it better, plus I’ll get another look at the eye candy. 😁

The more I watch this channel, the more I believe this guy has some kind of scientific education. Fantastic source of information and thank you!

Hi Abe, greetings from France. Thx for the quality, the advice, to me your channel is #1. I don't miss a single episode.

This video was exceptional. Especially the diagrams. I’ve been doing a lot of research on this subject lately based on my faded corals due to low nutrients and low feeding and this has helped me. Cheers!

This has to be the absolute clearest and most succinct explanation that I've ever watched/read. You sir, have helped me a ton. Thanks! keep the videos coming.

Thanks! Your videos are on my “Day 1 must watch” list.

so nice to see someone who gets its , there is an old reefer saying , Stability. Promotes .Success .

Great video Abe! Interesting theories. Thanks for taking the time to create this video.

Oh wow, I don’t know how many times I’ve watched this video. So much information to take in. Thanks a lot Abe for such great videos! And your tanks, as you know, look nothing but spectacular.

Very interesting I run basically the same system heavy in heavy out sps dominate no3 is 16ppm and no4 is between .10 - .1 everything is doing really well. Thanks for the video.

You have the most educational briefing videos on KZfaq in my opinion. Very nice quality and easy to understand. Your success with how your corals look back you up 100%.

Sick video Abe. I cant imagine how much time it took you to create it. I started with marco rock in my tank and likewise around the 1 year mark I could tell things had changed and acros started doing very well. Love your videos! 😀

I havent watched the video but a like was needed lol abe love your vids man one of the BEST youtubers out there

Man you summarized reef keeping science in a video.

Best content on the internet! I've been saying it and finally it has become obvious. Go check out his plethora of knowledge on his website and order some eye candy while you're there.

Now that's how you make a video!! I need to watch this a few more times to soak up all that knowledge, so informative. I love how you explain things. I also believe in a heavy in, heavy out method. Due to watching your videos I switched to rowaphos from standard gfo already. Thanks for the excellent content. 🔥🔥🔥

Absolutely fantastic video. Great job! You bring clarity to complexity, and simplify for the masses. More of these please!

I watched all of your videos. Especially, several times this one. I appreciate your kind explanation and hope to watch your contents more often. Thank you.

I come back to re-watch this video every few months. Such a good reminder to consider where my nutrients are at, how I should be thinking about them, and to explain any variables I've seen. Great vid! BTW, what salt mix do you use?

Hi, I can say that after low nutrients and lost of some SPS and LPS I learn how important nutrients are in the closed reef system. I started to feed my tank more often and got better results in growing, color and health of the corals. Also letting me to raise the intensity of the t5 light by raising the hours of use.

I love your channel man. This one is like the myth busters of the reef hobby.

Still one of the best videos on nutrients. Well done!

You are amazing with easy and sample ways to any one to understand ... Keep this good things going i really get alot of information from your videos you are the guide line for me .. i love your work .. beat wishes and happy reefing from Egypt

Great vid. Did not disagree with anything you said. What was great was that you explained his newer tanks need to be handled. This is always overlooked and you get ppl with newer tanks trying to copy what someone does with a 3 year+ tank and then it all goes to bad. Great tank too.

As many have said, great awesome video specially for those who want to achieve what you did. That's my case. And that is kind of going with some of our believes/hypothesis. Not saying I'm doing all that, quite opposite actually lol Yes, unfortunately I did skip WC and my nitrates are quite high. PO4 went to 0.13 ppm, it was 0.02. I only have a few frags and 3 days ago they went downhill. All closed, one may die IDK. But I added more Rowaphos and they opened again. Not saying the issue was PO4, I just don't know. But the guy from one of the LFS I go told me it could also be ammonia or nitrites. And I did a treatment for fluke, so I dosed prazipro and also dosed Vibrant for a bit of algae that came up. So yes, could be the medicine but as the guy said maybe I had an ammonia/nitrite spike. I will never know. I just hope the frag that did really bad comes back.

Awesome video! I liked it a lot. It’s interesting, I hit 1 year recently with my tank, and acro is finally doing very well. It wasn’t until 9 months in with this tank that I actually realized I was not importing enough. Cheers friend thank you again. 🍻

I like the way you addressed the ever evolving understanding of nutrients. I'm secretly running an extremely high nutrient system mostly to try and save a wilsoni I found nearly dead at LFS. Its only a secret because if I need advice or have an issue I want as much input as possible not a comment thread that ends with what my po ⁴ no³ is. I've found as of yet nothing negative. I have a lps dominant reef so I'm sure that plays a large factor. I also have an aggressive export methodology.

Wow dude! Very well put! I feel like you've brodened my understanding and confirmed my isolated thought processes. Thank you!

Can sound like cliche, but best explanation I have ever experienced.

I just want to thank you for for your class . Seriously amazing knowledge. Question for you. Why not send in the bottom??

My favorite nutrient explanation on youtube. Great content Abe!

Learnt so much from you over all your videos, this one I've watched before, but just rewatched now. I've been playing with phosphate reduction methods, as I decided GFO is dirty and a pain to deal with. I initially played with lanthanum chloride, but didn't like it, stuff scared me, and it showed very high on ICP. For the last couple of months I've been adding sodium nitrate to my RO top off to intentionally elevate my nitrates, and in doing so, allowing me to run my chaeto reactor more aggressively. I guess I'm force feeding my chaeto to keep my phosphates at a reasonable level, and it seems to work really well. It's also cleared up some micro algae, i guess by outcompeting. I just pre-mixed a batch of 2L of sodium nitrate, then drop 10ml into my 25L RO container. Hopefully a few more months of playing around with this will see if it's a long term strategy, but I'm pretty happy right now, and I'm pouring food into my tank.

Love your channel! Best reefing videos on KZfaq for sure!

Hey bud just want to say I love your videos and thanks for taking the time to make them very helpful and much appreciated.

Wow a lot of ground was covered in this video! 👏 It could have easy been a 3-part series with the volume of information covered, solid video! Good job with the pacing and keeping it positive! I like your style of "Here's what I read" vs "How I'm applying it" including "Here's the results" and "How I've adjusted my technique" without talking down to the viewers or trying to sell/push products. 👏 👏 👏

Once again you have knocked it out of the park on this video ;) Awesome Abe

Great video. Really appreciate you dumbing it down for some of us lol. It really does give it a good perspective on the way to achieve great color and growth from our corals. I struggle with my 300. I have a mixed reef but mainly sps and i have a ton of flow and lighting but i also have a ton of fish. Im sure my want for that full reef look is not allowing me to have a awesome tank like yours. I get alot of compliments on it but i am not happy because i know it could be so much better. I appreciate all the videos you do. There are not many fellow reefers with such a successful aquarium like yours that get into the specifics like you do.

I like your thought process, it matches mine as a new acropora keeper. I run my acro tank with tropic marin products only, and in that methodology carbon dosing is used to feed the corals. So the extra bacteria are not supposed to be skimmed out, but provide the nutrients in a more pallatable fashion to the corals. So even though I don't have measurable nutrients, my acropora are growing. Some are basically white, but growing fast. Others, like my strawberry shortcake, came to me bleached after stessfull shipping. And despite my ULNS it is, after 1.5 months maybe, completely colored up and totally beautiful and growing. I even got my money back for it, since it was bone white and with no polyp extension. So the way I see it is, I need to saturate my water with pallatable nutrients. Bacteria, aminos, planktonic foods daily. I have a very low fish population, so I really feel this saturation works. anyways, great video!

Good thoughts. Just lowered my no3 and po4 to 5 and .07-.12. Would like to get my po4 down to .05 consistently just don’t want to use rowa. 20 fish in about 180g. Started feeding less and that has helped. Skim overnight to keep ph up at night but shut off during photoperiod to keep ph below 8.4!

Great video Abe!!! Not much out there on this topic believe me I’ve searched it. This very debate has been going on in my head I’ve dozed no3 and po3 trying to raise nutrients off of zero to 5 ppm then 10 ppm for months now to see what the results would be and although I’ve have learned what my acropora seem to like I’ve concluded overall my tanks health as a whole is best at 2-5 ppm nitrate and any reading I get above zero po4 I’m happy. So I’ve now moved away from dosing no3 and po4 and I’m feeding heavier and adding fish slowly. Thanks again

I really like your videos, this video in particular has really helped with verify a couple questions I've been wondering about. Keep up the good work!

Your videos and explanations are amazing. My new tank( waterbox , 75 gallon display with 30 gallon sump), is only 4 months old. Mostly softies and a couple acropora just to see how they do. They are alive, but not growing much. Guess I'll just have to wait it out. I do feed heavy and have higher nutrients than you at this time... .o6 phosphates and 20 nitrates. Using a skimmer and filter socks with weekly 10% water changes. Thinking about trying some rowaphos as well, but will have to use a media bag for now. Just watched last nights live with Reef Bum...great stream...Thanks

Amazingly informative video … I have a tank of about coming up on one year after a tank transfer to a waterbox , this definitely helps understand a bit more what’s going on thank you 🙏

So true about the low phosphate and nitrate readings. I can get algae and have zero readings, corals are the ultimate test kits 😀

Great video! If only it was this easy to prevent nusiance algae & get great acropora colors. I think there is a lot more to the subject. Also the people who are saying to raise the nutrients are in my opinion below the lower “wave” on your diagram @7:22, so very-very close to the bottom. Interestingly it seems like nuisance algae, cyano, dino also likes that “band” at not just the one above the upper “wave”:) Love your channel! Actually it is my current favourite! Keep the videos coming!

Ive been waiting for u to do a vid on no3 and po4 and here it is. Thanks for the awesome info.

Best video out there! Great job! Totally agree on the heavy import/export. It’s what I have found to work the best for me now for 6+ months. I’m not sure however why your test kit readings are so off compared to ATI ICP. Mine are surprisingly dead on and after confirming a few times. I confirmed it by testing also right when I was sending them. I auto feed 3 times a day and manually 0-2 times a day so when you take your water sample to test and /or send really makes a difference in the readings. I use salifert for nitrates and Hanna ultra low test for phosphates.

This clip is very good advice for me. Thanks a lot. Are you reefing until now?

Abe! you are the man dude! Thanks for the vid, definitely learned a lot from this, happy reefing 🐠

I really love this video. Thank you so much for all the work you put into this. I have certainly learned some stuff from it

As usual, content is top notch and the eye candy corals are a bonus! Thanks

Love your tank! It’s my goal for my 120. Doing a reboot now. Trying to emulate what you’re doing this time around

Started this method a month ago. Didn't know anyone else was doing it.

Older video, but this is what I plan to do. Small skimmer, roller mat, chaeto. Heavy in heavy out.

Excellent video discussion sir. Can I make a reading suggestion? I am a laymen in my understanding of corals, but my degree is in plant and soils science. Your approach reminds me of agricultures framework in understanding terrestrial photosynthetic organisms nutrition. I think this discussion would benefit from understanding "Liebig's law of the minimum", a foundation of plant and soil nutrition. I won't suggest it's a direct parallel, but i think the methodology is worth your time given your literacy on the topic. I find many similarities between the nutrition concerns of soil vice sea water in how they sustain the organisms relying upon them

Fantastic! Amazing job and scientific evaluation along with excellent observation and explanations! Keep this up.

What I experience with low nutrients is that I have little polyp expansion. At the moment I try to feed coral daily to make the nutients readable, but this doesn't work. I have also reduced the hours of my algae compartment so far. What I can try to do now is to prune the algae even more to a minimum and hope that there are some more nutrients to read, where the sps corals can be a bit happier and give better polyp expansion.

Hello Abe I love your videos and your concept of everything being kind of simple setup I'm not a big fan of all these gizmos old school only a few I've been in salt water since 1986 you really seem to have your system down pat believe it or not I still do run a wet dry filter people always say that they were nitrate factories I have 100 gallon tank with a yellow tang and a fifteen-year-old hippo Tang and a couple of clownfish not a very big bioload that's probably why my nitrates are very low I remember not long ago where everybody was saying keep your nitrates and phosphates at zero now the new thing is keep a little bit of both in your tank how things change over time take care abe

What a great vid! My favourite reefing channel for sure! You only feed dry foods? Can you make a video about what you feed and why, I ve read a lot of people with high input say you shouldnt do dry. Also I agree the po4 shouldnt go to high. I bought 24 frags from a ulns with high input of which 2 died within a week. My p04 was 0.12 and two others were losing tips. I then lowered to about 0.08 and they regained there tips. Now its has gone up again and they are losing tips. I for sure believe some corals cant deal with po4 higher then 0.1. Also you should try the red sea p04 test kit. I realy trust this kit. I trust it as much as my kh test kits, and in the netherlands it is recomended and trusted by most on the forums.

I think if we were to create a well rounded ecosphere within a system there probably would not be a huge need to test. I agree with one point you alluded to, even though a tank can be “cycled” quickly these days, there’s still a ton of biology that has to establish beyond the initial cycle and it takes 7-9 months... especially with dry rock

Unreal video love how you explain things mate. Keep them coming 👌👌👌👍

Brilliant! Thank you!

Great video man, best reefing youtuber by a mile

I’m setting up a new tank. I share your feeling 100% on heavy in and heavy out. I’m interested to know how you have your bucket plumbed as well as the light used? Thank you got the informative video

Awesome video and I trust your coral philosophy.. Don't take so long for another video. It felt like forever.. 😭😭😭

Wonderful video. Love your method of explaining!

Very cool and educational video, allow me share to my FB group. I am the 2016 April RC TOTM tank owner, which I saw a picture of my tank in your video. Very cool. My concept about ULNS is very similar to yours, but you explain it a much better way. Congrats!

Abe, first of all wanted to say love your channel your knowledge & success in this hobby is very inspiring. I wanted to ask you have you run into issues where your chaeto doesnt out compete algae in your display ? What steps do you take to remedy this ? Providing maintenance is on point, weekly water changes, feeding clean food etc. Feel like im doing everything right moving into my 4th tank Planning on sps dominant but gha seems to be winning & my chaeto is growing well. Would you suggest using some gfo ? Or checking no3/po4 and dosing nitrate to take down the excess po4 ? Water changes ? What would you do ?

Keep it up , really like your sharing and thoughts . Love to watch your video

Yes you are right test kits are crap and are not laboratory quality. Some are halfway decent but none are totally Trustworthy unless you can compare it with a higher quality lab results. All test kits are not created equal and can be off significantly, I would just use them to get a ballpark figure. They are just not accurate enough for such low readings. I think a big problem with a lot of reefers is lack of patience, you need to build up your ecosystem carefully and slowly, The problem is a lot of people don’t have the patience to go slow. PS. You have to admit Megan’s results are quite impressive which speaks for itself! The corals themselves are supporting Megan’s environmental system. Impressive validation.

Such a good video. Keep the content coming!

Great video and great explanation! Definitely heavy in/heavy out for me!

Excellent video fella, I like your way of thinking and your tank is simply amazing 👍

Wowww what an awesome informational video... best nutrient vide i have seen. You explained it so well

Discovered you just now, amazing content!

Couldn’t have said it better, just looking at ur corals can say more than test kits, !! Great vid

Great video Abe. Loved the content very informative.

Stellar video! Keep them coming!

I use light carbon dosing (1ml NOpox for 50g daily) instead of GFO. Allows me to mix reef chili and reef roids with the pellets i feed 3x daily in auto feeder. Always low readings

I like the geavy in a d heavy out

I'm curious if the same holds true for LPS colors. Seems like my Lps all change color after having them for a few months. I always run about Po4 . 1-.2 and No3 about 3-7. I wonder if I ran lower nutrients of they would return to their original coloring.

Great content, like always Thank you for share your knowledge!

Always informative concrete info. Acros looking stunning, I remember the unboxing video of those designer acros. Questin, whats your opinion on biopellets for no3 reduction. Thanks, Oh, you get a thumbs up.

Man you have an awesome reef thanks for sharing 👍👍

Great video, thank you. This video is extremely relevant to my recent adventures. My tank is 6 months old, through all my trials and errors as a new reefer learning lessons I was attempting to use biopellets as a form of carbon dosing. I also noticed my Po4 on the rise so I used some GFO and accidentally stripped my water of Po4. At this point the biopellets were ineffective on the nitrate, I am assuming because of the lack of Po4. I began dosing Po4 to keep detectable levels but my nitrates kept rising to 40ppm at one point, I couldn't keep up with the water changes (50% every week or two) limited my feeding etc. I built a chaeto reactor in a bucket (inspired by yours) and began vinegar dosing. 2 months later up to 40ml vinegar a day and a 12-hr photoperiod on the chaeto and now Po4 and No3 read near 0. (API No3 = 0, and Hanna ULR Phosphorous = 10ppb or .03ppm) My fish are happy now because I feed LIKE CRAZY trying to avoid zero. I am getting ready to cut down my photoperiod on the fuge and cut my vinegar dose down, but I was wanting to let it settle for a month or so and see if it remains at zero~ before making any changes. I like the idea of heavy in heavy out and would prefer to keep that going and just monitor corals. The only sps I have in my tank so far is a pavona and a monti. They are both browned out, likely from the nutrients but it happened about a month or two ago. Right around when I started vinegar dosing and I've read that vinegar can cause the corals to brown... but IDK. Anyways, long story short is there any specific signs your corals give you if they are short on nutrients??? Other than bleaching?

Great video, thanks.

Thank you for the information always can use that

Great info sir! Awesome video!

Hey man your tanks are amazing. I would love to get some of your frags but the shipping to South korea might break me. Either way appreciate your vids they give me more knowledge about this hobby nowadays i started just before you but have been off and on

Love the video and content

Awesome vid! Keep them coming

is there a way to keep SPS on a vegan diet?