I always look forward to new BRSTV content. I have been able to start my journey into reef keeping because of this channel and in return, I shop BRS for most of my supplies. Thank you for your contribution to hobbyist like me!
Let me sum this up for some new reefers as I can see this video confusing a lot of people. Aim for 100:1 nitrate to phosphate and not 10:1. Personally I prefer 5ppm nitrate to ~.05 phosphate. Test your nitrate and phosphate weekly, not monthly. Early stages of your tank (less than 6 months) you might want to test even more especially right after your cycle. After 6 months to a year it will be easier and you can test less. Get your filtration adequate so you are dropping levels and never increasing - this way you have the opportunity to dose nitrate and phosphate and have better control of your levels. Do not feed your coral more than once a week and keep up with your clean up crew population. You dont need to do weekly water changes, especially on tanks larger than 50 gallons. What ever husbandry you do to your tank you must be consistent as your tanks biological filtration will depend on that consistency. Lastly, GET AN ICP TEST DONE at least every 3 months as you are more likely than not dropping or overdosing dangerous levels of elements no matter how good you think you are. Good luck peeps.
.05 seems kind of high. I hate it when mine gets around .02. Algae seems to start creeping in around there. It's neat to see different tanks with different personalities.
@@dontbetreadin4777 I’ve been upping my nitrates from 0-0.02 to around 0.5 and increasing very slowly while keeping PO4 low and it does seem to be working well.
Would love all of the BRS master series to be stitched together like this. Great if you need a refresher course without having to scout out videos one by one and missing vital info. Easily the best and easily digestible resource for this stuff.
These need to make a come back. I love these series and always come back to them when my tank starts showing signs of something. Fairly new to the SW hobby. Keep up the good work.
BRS... What can I say? You have always been trying to put out the most relevant information you can. Understandably promoting your own products when it makes sense but NEVER afraid to recommend another option or better options. Even if those options are not sold by BRS. I for one am grateful for what Ryan, BRS, and all they have added to our hobby. Always keeping things moving forward. Certainly always keeping the conversation open! Keep up these detailed informal videos.
I feel like I should have to pay a subscription fee to watch this 😂. Super high quality and you consistently answer all of my “why?” and “what if?” questions. Always blown away by your content.
This is by far the most important video a beginner should watch after they figure out the initial cycle. I’ve been in the hobby for about 6 years and im finally just getting comfortable with controlling nitrates and phosphates. More so with adding them to the tank in a controlled manner. This video is the best resource I’ve come across that fully explains nitrates, phosphates and the role they play in our tanks. Thanks BRS for another outstanding lesson learned!
My reef will be a year old this May, all thanks to BRS. Honestly has helped me with any challenges my tank and myself have provided. If I run into a problem I know I can, type in a few key words that I know because of you all, bam there’s my problem. Broken down several ways and explained in extreme detail from people with serious knowledge and experience.
Ryan and his team are by far one of the best informative reefing channels not on just TH-cam but period. Can’t thank you guys enough! I’m a few months into my endeavors and have had nothing but success! Big credit to you guys couldn’t have done it without you. Have enjoyed every video and looking forward to many more!
take his info with a grain of salt, i disagree with nearly everything he says.. all hes doing is promoting equipment to sell.. skimmer, sumps, filters are absolutetly not needed in a reef.. i have 10,000$ in corals.. name a coral i most likely have it.. and i have no equipment.. no skimmer, no sumps.. nitrates and phosphates would make you poo yourself.. im a firm believer my success is due to T5 lights over LED's.. and by keeping the tank "dirty" meaning no filtering, no skimmer which takes out filter food for corals.. etc
There's such a different feel to this video compare to other BRStv. Big fan of all the other but the vibe of this one is really fun to listen and has really good content for all levels of refer. Thank you for sharing, this was a joy to watch in full. I love to see product reviews but this didn't felt like a pressure on hobbyist to purchase something but just to be in tune with the reef they are creating at home. Ride the wave of this video Ryan!
This is a fantastic discussion. Well done, Sir. Though I'm just another enthusiastic hobbyist in my understanding of Marine Science. As someone educated in agricultural science, nutrient management, and conservation; I can only echo much of what you described here. Most of this was not anecdotal experience. No, your descriptions here match much of our scientific understanding, and explained in a way that makes them interrelated and usable to the hobby. Again, well done. This is a great series. The only part where I personally struggle, is the discussion on Ratio's. And I agree, we just don't know. From my own experience, broad ratio's work when discussing exponential growth organisms like bacteria. Again, keeping with Agriculture as the example, the Carbon to Nitrogen ratio will predictably determine how fast organic waste mineralizes (decomposes) in a setting like a compost pile. Or the specific Nitrogen to Phosphate ratio will determine how likely a natural body of water is to experience a micro-algae bloom. It's a function of the enormous number of individual organisms at scale, each being nearly identical to each other, and which reproduce at a near hourly rate. Those ratios do not hold up if I extend it to most eukaryotic and complex organisms. It's more plausible that individual species would have a unique general ratio that may or may not match. However, what is suggestive is that they would have still evolved in an environment with a 16:1 ratio. That level of availability would have possibly shaped a species development, here you get into conversations like nature versus nurture. And you're correct most plants do have a preferred ratio. But again, it's known to be species dependent. At a macro scale, a C3 plant does not often match a C4, or CAM plant's requirements (the 3 common types of plant photosynthesis). Even some plants within the same genus may have different demands. And even the same plant may have different needs when it's a seedling focused on root and shoot development, vice when it's an adult focused on reproduction (though to your credit, you did touch on this difference). However, you framed the theory well; and I do think you were right to include the Redfield ratio here, as it has driven much of the conversation. But the right answer is still, we don't know. There are plausible arguments for and against it. But, given how vast and complex the natural system is (a literal Ocean), who knows... A better theory to use in this case would be "Lebigs Law of the Minimum" which is a 150 year old agricultural principle, that describes a theoretical maximum growth rate in relation to the organisms most scarce required nutrient. It's better described today as, the limiting rate nutrient. Instead of just 2 elements in consideration, an average plant will have anywhere between 17 & 19 required elements. I suspect this theory would work very well when applied to corals, though the specific element demands would need to be adjusted. Sorry for the side tangent, you just peaked my curiosity and got me thinking during that particular segment. But again, fantastic series.
@@artistic_spaz3724 thanks, but don't wow me. Wow Ryan. He took the time to build an exceptional lecture in a usable format. I'm just being supportive of his efforts.
Just started Reefing 9 months ago but been reading for well over 2 years . And I have to say that this is a invaluable video and has made me want to research more. Fantastic video BRStv .
Ryan! Thank you for the missing links. And I will get right on it as soon as I can. This is the conversation I needed and couldn’t find from other reefers.
All this information is truly amazing. I have been reading and watching for a very very long time and starting my own 40 gallon soon. Sources like brstv make it possible for normal hobbyist like me to enjoy this hobby for which I'm truly gratefull. You guys radiate passion and I hope to see lots of new information while this hobby matures even further.
Bravo my friend. this felt more formal than most of the other videos where it feels like we are just BSing about reefing. but I like it. it's was a very well put together video not only did you dive in deep but zoomed out as well and give us the big picture. i have been struggling with my newer tank ( RS650) that is 14 months or so keeping the N&P up. the food topic i found interesting... keep up the great work guys!
Just started this video, but the part about Dinos is spot on. I got rid of mine by increasing my dosage of Reef Chili. I sprayed the Dinos with the Reef Chili each morning and within a week it was all gone and haven't had it since. My Nitrate and Phosphate was 0, now my 20 gallon long sits at or around 10 Nitrate and .2 Phosphate. Love your videos, thanks for your continued help!
You feed frozen? For me to keep phosphate that low I always have 0 nitrate, like I do now. Phosphate is like 0.03. Been feeding flake and stuff with some mysis mixed in every few days
@@Boogerdick69 interesting, I’m running a Fuge with Triton method and can’t keep PO4 levels down. They’re enjoy particularly high but keep creeping up but my NO3 is almost zero.
@@Boogerdick69 I do, but I don't feed much since I only have 2 clowns, a citron goby, watchman goby and a mandarin in my 20 gallon long. I feed flakes, small TDO pellets, mysis and brine shrimps. I don't have a skimmer, sump, etc. only a 50 gallon Fluval HOB filter with Chemi-Pure but I'm able to keep everything stable with careful feeding and 5 gallon water changes once a week.
i have 40-60ppm nitrates and 1-2ppm phosphates.. and i use no filters at all on my 4 reefs my largest is my 135g 6 ft tank.. no sumps, no skimmers, nothing and i have 10,000$ in corals.. never had algae ever i cant even grow it if i tried.. i thought maybe it was my water where i lived. i used tap water.. nope i moved 3 hours away on a well now.. because its a well with sediment and iron smell i use RODI now.. tanks havent changed one bit.. which means it isnt water where you live, its the nutrients in the tank.. over filtering causes these issues.. i remember when i installed a skimmer to try it. I have pictures of the time frame too, my 6 gonioporas the sized of basket balls or slightly smaller, started slowely declining eventually bleaching when i had the skimmer on alot.. once i took it off my tank my corals started recovering..
I love you guys! You have been so helpful in my journey with reef keeping. It's amazing! Battling dinos rn at 6 months in but It looks like I'm winning! I'm so glad you take the time to try and educate and provide mentorship to those who need it. It's amazing how successful I've been so far. I haven't lost a single coral in my 90 gal, and no fish (chromis don't count....). What a great episode.
After being out of the hobby for 10 years, you guys provide great guidance, information, and products. Going from Metal Halides and water changes to LED’s, T5’s, chemical levels(nitrate,phosphate,calcium, magnesium), refugium, protein skimmer etc. thank you for what you are doing/providing for the hobby. I can want to see what BRS will continue to do into the future.
I’ve been binge watching for weeks and this video really hit the spot! My new Red Sea 850 arrives on Thursday and I can’t wait to explore what the future holds for my soon to be reef! Thanks for sharing all your knowledge freely. Any other hobby / trade would charge big money for all this knowledge, breaking it up into hundreds of lessons.
My observation has been that if I bottom out NO3/PO4 I get dinos, but if I let both NO3/PO4 rise too high I get algae. And imbalance of NO3/PO4 tends to lead to cyano. Not sure the specific levels, or if something else was going on chemically, but that's been what I've noticed over the years.
Having so much trouble with nutrients in my 15g. It’s either 0 0 with Dino’s or sky high with GHA. It won’t settle 😩 this is the first tank I ever started with dry rock and I will NEVER do it again. Live rock is a must. Been in the hobby 7 years and never had this much trouble before.
Biodiversity is the absolute key to creating a balanced environment, salt or fresh water. Adding wild microbiologicals is the very best way to build a system.
After watching your videos 18months ago, I’m successfully running a NSA, dry rock, bare bottom tank in the Triton method. My biggest problem is Nitrates are almost too low hovering around 0.2. The phosphates gradually creep up, but a little GFO cures that. I had some help from Reef Bum Keith Berkelhamer and now my SPS are booming! Thanks
Thank you very much for making such a good informational video. It's something I've always wondered about while maintaining a reef tank for over 7 years.
I just wanted to say I truly enjoyed this video n hope you do more just like it the setup to the edits n the topic this is n amazing and very detailed and informative video n once again want to thank you for being you and doing these amazing videos!!!
This felt like a university level class on reefing and it was so informative but a bit overwhelming too. I'm less than a year into my first tank and have made mistakes and am trying to learn but am so discouraged (fighting dino outbreak for 2 months?) Reefing is a wonderful hobby but is also not for the faint of heart!!
half of it is just his observation.. none of it true or not true.. Ive been reefing for years.. I have no sump no skimmer, no filters at all.. and i have 10,000$ in corals in my reef tanks,, acroporas, gonioporas, every single coral you can think of.. i most likely have... my nitrates are 40ppm or higher sometimes.. phosphates.. last i checked were 1-2ppm.. this dude actually measures phosphates to 0.03ppm.. cmon man.. Anytime i see people have issues with their tanks, algae, corals dying.. etc its because the tanks are way too clean.. I disagree with 95% of the gibberish he spewed out. I have tanks that look better than his, and they cost me $2-300 in equipment.. and that equipment is just the t5 lights and power head and heater..
I have to agree on Dino’s. Presently I am battling Dino’s after having a zero Nitrate and Phos tank. I am no dosing Nitrate and phos and adding beneficial bacteria. As Ryan has said, it tools months to get here, and now months to get out. The other thing I am finding is my coral are stressed and are no growing and that is leading to increase in Alk and Cal, which I have had to stop dosing altogether. Thank you Ryan and BRS for the Mater series.
One of the best summaries on coral husbandry ever presented. Teleported to an Ivy League university, listening to a Nobel prize winning professor’s inspirational lecture. “Tusen tack !” Nutrients & Nutrition: my two cents on the topic. Perhaps another way to understand these terms would be … Nutrient is a general term for any type of substance that contributes to a life form’s growth. Could say that Nutrient(s) is objective or applicable to many life forms. Nutrition is a specific term pertaining to the needs a specific life form has to sustain its growth. Could say that Nutrition is subjective or life form specific.
Dino is what I am dealing with right now in my 32gal, couldn’t get rid of them found out my tank was too clean no nitrates 🤷🏻♂️ so now I’m reducing my water changes and seeing if that helps some
As someone who’s fought and fought to master eradicating hair algae… and won I can say I miss it. I am now slowly mastering DINOS which have stepped in as the dominant fauna. BIODIVERSITY, responsible feeding, and most important - taking time to observe is the key to success.
In horticulture we use NPK but in reefing we only talk about Nitrogen and phosphorous and glaze over how important potassium is to photosynthesis. When diagnosing greenhouse crops they are often limited in potassium and I wonder how this crossed over to reefing. We can not just consider the host we must consider the algae that feeds them. If I were a betting man I would say down the road we will all be testing potassium.
Potassium can be tracked relative to other things you test for, So PH Alkalinity, along with your calcium and Magnesium, If those are in good ranges or slightly elevated then you most likely have plenty of potassium, this isnt always true but ALMOST always true
@@dontbetreadin4777 I agree however rates of consumption of major elements in reef tanks vary greatly from one system to another. Same with trace elements we just don't track consumption of trace elements as often (unless your doing daily icp tests)
Use a mangrove for long term nutrient planning. Not a “quick” competitor but 4 years with just one and I’m feeding algae from a cycling tank just to keep from 0’s
An interesting thought for an experiment occured to me while watching this. What if we could compare coral growth rates when given equivalent amounts of nutrients in different forms. The setups could include: 1. Chemical fertilizers only (no fish). 2. Indirect feeding via fish food. 3. Direct feeding of the corals. 4. A control tank kept as sterile as possible. I imagine it would be hard to determine how to balance the inputs and how to control for other variables that might pop up such as nuisance algae hogging nutrients. Nonetheless I think it would be interesting to see. I'm sure #3 would see the best growth, but by how much?
I like this format quite a bit more than your other videos. The enthusiasm in other videos is almost shouting and is not very easy to listen to for multiple videos at a time.
One thing I wish someone told me starting this hobby was how much nutrition control roller mats give you. Save yourself the heart ache and money, and plumb a roller mat into your system. I had to turn my protein skimmer off completely because of the nutrient removal.
On my farm I balance raising livestock, legumes and crops. These three sectors balance each other so I never add fertilizer to my soil. My soil has improved over the decades from poor mountain gravel to rich organic loam. Ideally we find the same balance in our tanks.
Hi. My question will be on a fish only and live rock saltwater tank. I just started cycling a fish and live rock saltwater tank like a week ago. Do i need to put in my filters a phosphate absorber media during cycling or when do i need to? Which do you recommend? Thanks
Stay away from phosphate absorption media during the initial cycle as the good nitrifying bacteria need some phosphate to reproduce quickly. Once your tank is cycled, only use phosphate media as a tool for if/when your phosphates are higher than your target level.
My hope is people listen to the point of "we don't really know and maybe do this" my biggest complaint with the hobby is people watch these videos and then talk down to others while still not understanding that there are many ways to attack each problem and also one fix may not work for everyone.
Can you please do a thorough and detailed test on various foods, flake, pellet, various types of frozen foods and coral foods, and give a full breaks down of the phosphate and nitrate in the foods so we can choose please?
A question If you have a bonded pair of clownfish and you want to separate them to try to rebound with a different clownfish would it work or not .?. Thank you .
It took 2 days but I managed to watch the entire video. I don't know if I'm smarter or dumber. Do I get a BRS trophy or something? Thanks for what you do.
I need help. I just bought a Hanna ULR phosphate checker. My phosphate is higher than the checker range. It reads 0.90 and flashing. The Hanna ULR phosphate checker range is from 0 to 0.90.
Double check to make sure you're performing the test correctly first. If you are, then I would suggest a series of larger water changes to help knock it back. From there, it's time to evaluate the filtration system and the bioload/amount being fed so that you can curb the phosphate increase.
@@BRStv Thanks for the reply. I am so surprise to hear from you. I have check twice before I change and after i do a water change with the Hanna ULR checker. Both time shows exceed the range of the checker. That means I have to do a few large water change. I am not using RO/DI water filter system. Is that a reason why after water change the phosphate never goes down ?
Hi, I have recently dosing Aquaforest NitraPhos minus. My nitrate has been dropping from above 50 to 3.4 in about 3 weeks time but my Phosphate level is still above my Hanna Phosphate ULR checker which is higher than 0.90. I understand that Nitrate cannot be too low but Phosphate has to keep it as low as possible. Should I still continue dosing the Aquaforest NitraPhos minus ? I have tested my tap water in my area. It's 0.17. Is it too high for the tap water ? Should I use a RO/DI water system ?
Mike Paletta has excellent data on many of the best SPS reefers and they all maintain a ratio of N03:PO4 of at least 50:1 with >100:1 being best. This is the ratio I care about. If I had 10:1 I would be adding NO3 or likely Aminos to get it up and if PO4 was too high I would be carbon dosing. I think this is really good but I always here 100:1 being the ratio to hit so I am unsure why BRS is going with 10:1
I think it was a r2r thread that has this data. I had forgotten about it. But I remember all of the big dogs in sps growth and show tanks all had very low po4 and "crazy high" no3.
@@FreedomFanatix Yeah - at one stage I had like 0.02 PO4 and 10 NO3 and my corals didn't look great - Maybe the ratio was even 1000:1. I think 100-200 is the sweet spot. I even think the natural ratio may be 100:1 not 10:1 - maybe Ryan got it wrong... not sure.... I also hear little comments that dosing Amnios is also a form of Carbon Dosing so it may be that those SPS big dogs dose Aminos and that both increases NO3 and then the Carbon reduces NO3 + PO4 so you end up with that nice ratio.
My thoughts too. Im wondering how many new reefers are going to see this and shoot for 10 nitrates and 1.0ppm phosphate?! My tanks were best at 5ppm nitrate and around 0.05 po4. Thats 100:1 and a thriving reef. They also mention testing nutrients once a month. In my experience I would test nitrate and po4 weekly and everything else (ca, alk, mg) would be tested at least half as much. Once you dial in the big three its pretty easy to keep them stable but nutrients are always fluctuating depending on feeding, animal behavior and biological filtration health. The only thing I can agree with in this video is the point at not keeping your levels undetectable.
@@MoeReefs Yeah - on testing I need to test NO3/PO4 more like you but I test most things about once a month except Alk which I do daily with my KHD and at least weekly by hand. I think PO4 is optimal at 0.04 - but anything below 10 is good. So I would be worried about like you say newer reefers happy with high PO4
For me the nitrate levels promote more algua than phosphate, I rarely had algua with high phosphate but with low phosphate and high nitrate problem appears
Does dosing No3 makes sense? Ore does it not makes sense, because N is needed so I better dose N if I have a too low No3 value? I have a frag tank without fish, so no food, so I dose to get No3.
Dosing nitrate is something that definitely makes sense if you're seeing undetectable nitrates in your system. If you also have undetectable phosphates, it might just be easier to add in some fish food as that should, at least in theory, bump up both your nitrates and phosphates together.
i have a question i hope someone can answer iv been using all for reef for around a year iv been testing using a khd and hanna and my alk is always high around the 10.8 to 10 tropic marin say to keep steady at 9 ... i have a 220g system with a decent amount of corals not packed but quite a few , i have torches splitting heads etc everything seems quite happy .but i am only dosing 9ml afr per-day way less than what tm recommend all parameters seem stable from tests ? any ideas why my consumption is so low ? thank you ! ps great series
Consumption is based on the rate of calcification of your corals. Low consumption generally means slow growth. There are a number of reasons why that may be the case with a common ones being low pH or running too much or too little light (PAR) over the tank.
I have a 28G nano with lots of Zoas and LPS coral. Recently my candy can has been dying. The polyps are dying. Ive alsways had high elecations of Nitrates which Ive never been able to bring down. Its never been an issue. 100mg/L is avaregae even with weekly water changes. I moved the candy can away from a huge pollo muchroom which I think has been stinging the candy can and could be the culprite. Any ideas? Thanks
Could be a potential cause. You'll also want to look at your calcium and alkalinity levels as the candy cane corals do rely on them to build their skeletal structure. Of course, lighting can come into play too.
Have you guys thought about monitoring the office tanks and/or home tanks for a 2 to 5 year study on Nutrients ,bacteria , and algae growth? It isn't a small task or a cheap one but it would revolutionize the industry. I am sure that it would make BRS a name in the science community as well and find common problems to educate about. Just like the study on filter socks. You guys have already done most of the science and back bone of the study and the only thing left is a continuous monitoring of said tanks from testing to cleaning and how each task was performed. Details are key. I wouldn't be surprised if lotions or hand soaps are to blame for contamination in tanks and cause problems but we start blaming Nutrients. I personally try to keep my hands out of my tank or have elbow high gloves. My tank isn't the ocean and It doesn't require much to throw a closed system off balance. I take care to watch what I place in my 200 gallon tank for the well being of my animals and we all know this hobby isn't cheap. Thanks for what you guys do and wish many more years of success.
Love the thought, just hard to execute properly. Most of our office tanks are maintained by different people, so that variable alone would likely be enough to put any results into question. Something like you describe would have to be in a more controlled environment to be taken seriously. In our opinion, of course 🙂
I had dinos for months. Cleaned the tank like crazy and then realised i should have done the opposite!!! I started to feed daily 2x with frozen foon, added some stock and they went away in DAYS! Tested po4 and no3 and they all went up a little and the dino never came back....for now.
My tank is almost two and I have always struggled with zero nitrate and phosphate. I now have green slime all over. I have tried dosing Brightwell products to get it up, but it has yet to work. Any suggestions?
@@MoeReefs thanks Moe. I have tried dosing on two separate occasion and algae explodes on the glass and rocks. The algae is like a dark golden color. I have never seen such nasty look algae. I am guessing I need more cleanup crew to help balance it out
@@BlackGoldReefing Dose something like reef flux aka fluconazole to kill the algae. Make sure to follow the directions precisely. The trick with reef flux is for the algae to continue to grow while you are medicating it so that way it can uptake the fluconazole and die off. Turn off all skimmers and remove carbon the entire time. I recommend running gfo as soon as you see the hair algae die off to remove the excess po4 that will be released. It is kind of like a reset on the hair algae. Then aim for 5 ppm nitrate and 0.05 po4. Getting a better clean up crew is a good idea.
What are your thoughts on Tritons take on the Redfield ratio, where as I understand it, they think it’s wrong and that PO4 levels should be significantly lower than the Nitrate levels (I think it was almost 100x lower not 10x lower) Also looking back at historical Reef Tank Acropora and SPS winning tanks have extremely low or almost undetectable PO4 levels. What are your thoughts on this? I was of the understanding that the latest I’m understanding is that the Redfield Ratio is a red herring and the best results are much different with significantly lower PO4, especially according to Triton.
I think the zero nitrate and phosphate Dino thing is a myth or at the least misleading. It seems more likely that dinos happen from disturbances to the bio filter in the tank. Low nutrients might just cause that by killing of some algae and disrupting the system enough. Also inverted red field ratio has been shown to have some effect for bringing on dinos with some species. They consume nitrates and phosphate faster than anything else seems to in my tank so going for high nutrients just accelerated my dinos. I think the real key to fixing them long term is just to get everything dialed in and your bio layer settled in nice on the rocks.
if you say so.. i have 40-60ppm nitrates and 1-2ppm of phosphates in my 4 reef tanks with 10,000$ in corals, using no filters, no sumps, no skimmer, i dont even test my water anymore its a waste of my time, i dose alk daily, and water change 30% every 2 weeks and thats it.. I have no dinos, no algae, nothing.. I lived in a area where i used the tap water too, no rodi.. maybe it was that tap water maybe it was golden right ? Nope it wasnt, now i moved 3 hours away on a farm with a well and use RODI and my tanks havent changed at all.. The only explanation for this is because my tank is super high on nutrients. i dont filter the stuff that FILTER FEEDING animals need.. skimmers, filters etc take everything that filter feeding corals and other animals need to live..
@@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305 Not everyone gets dinos in there tank. In fact why would you even comment if you have zero experience with dinos? Also running your tank at that nutrient level leads me to believe it’s an older more stable system since if you tried that on a new tank it would become the Gha tank. Your tank didn’t start at those values so they are completely irrelevant to the Dino discussion. Both times I have dealt with dinos on this tank I have had above 0ppm nitrates and phosphates. The first strain I had was almost exclusive to the rocks and the only reason I ever hit 0 nutrients is because the dinos were consuming it all. I then had a different strain of dinos and cyano start even though my tank has been at 8-12 ppm nitrate and 0.01-0.02 phosphate for the last two months now. If you really take a look on the forums a lot of people have been having issues with dinos and it started when there was nutrients then exploded and the dinos out competed everything in the tank. I also use rodi water. Also weirdly enough in my coral qt it bounces off zero nutrients all the time because I don’t have any fish in there and that tank has been the smoothest one I own. Never have anything but a bit of stuff to clean off the glass a couple times per week. IMO a lot of times when people have 0 nutrients and dinos I think it’s because they don’t pay attention to their tanks enough to notice the tiny signs of the dinos starting and by the time they do it’s consuming all the nutrients in the water column so they see 0,0 and assume that’s the cause not the outcome. Also raising nutrients has never once killed dinos. Raising them and keeping them stable does though which again lends its self to the fact it’s more about stability than nutrient levels. This isn’t the case with all species of Dino but the ones it is they will explode if you just keep your lights on and keep feeding more and more.
@@KnarBurger you didnt get the part where i moved did you.. i moved and started the tank all over again.. dry sand. All my rocks dried up and in storage.. only my corals were moved from the 135 to a smaller 92g tank and cramped all together at a friends house while i was in a hotel for 3 months looking for a house. .. once i bought my 14 acre property i setuo my 135g tank. Poured my dead dry sand back in put my rocks in.. then drove 6 hours back n forth with my fish and corals in 20g tubs in my jeep. And put em in the tank. I only gave the tank 2 weeks to cycle as well. What happened ? No algae. Just diatoms for a week or two and thats it lol. Nitrates are 50ppm right now..tank has been setup for 2 months. No gha
@@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305 you left out the part where you let your rocks dry out but I don’t think that matters in your situation. Again I’m assuming here but your corals would have been decently grown out on rocks when you took it down. The bio film on those rocks would have survived and honestly been enough to seed the new tank. It’s the same as using live rock to start a tank but even better because you didn’t have dinos and gha on them to start with since you knew the system they came from. If anything your proving that live rock is a massive bonus to starting a new tank since you were able to get nutrient levels high quickly without adverse effects. If you had started with all dry rock and went to those nutrient levels with a normal lighting schedule it would have been a mess.
@@KnarBurger bio film would have survived 4 months in a storage unit in a bin dry.. lol i dont think so.. you dont know what youre talking about.. quit please lol
It would be great if you could sell a range of food that is IPC tested and and labelled as high Nitrate and low PO4 foods or high PO4 and low nitrate so we can select our food according to what we want to do.
meh i have 4 reef tanks, 135g 6 ft tank, 65g hexagon, 27g hexagon, 30g long. None of my tanks have sumps, skimmers, or any kind of filter except a HOB and those are off 99% of the time, i only use it in case i stir up the tank doing a water change or rearranging my scape and need a quick mechanical filter. I have 10,000$ in corals, Goniopoaras, bubble corals, elegance corals the size of basket balls. 40 types of acroporas, all other kinds of lps like torchs, hammers, everything you can think of i have. Im using T5 lights on my tanks, my nitrates are always 40ppm or sometimes higher, last i checked my phosphates were at 1-2ppm in various tanks i have tons of fish as well in these tanks.. All i do is water changes every 2 weeks about 30% each tank. I dose alkalinity and thats it. I have no algae outbreaks never have.. People think filters, sumps, skimmers and all kinds of bio media are needed, that you need to keep nitrates at near 0 and phosphates at near zero.. people test so crazily they actually care to measure phosphates at levels so low like .5ppm or .010 ppm or stupid low levels. I dont even test my water anymore.. Hell i didnt even use RODI either, i used city tap water..... I did move and have well water which smells of iron and has crazy orange color with sediment so i finally did install a 4 stage house filter with 20 inch big blue filters, and then RO DI after that and store it in a 60g trash can.. But still.. You people in the reefing community are litterally crazed when it comes to filters... none of it is needed.. absolutetly none of it.. I also am a firm believer that corals need phosphates need nitrates.. need all that floating debris you filter out, all the stuff skimmers take out.. This is probably why i have 10 types of WILD gonioporas that havent died in 2 years.. because i dont filter, i dont skim.. When i tell people what i just posted in real life, they dont believe me and think im nuts, until i show them the pics of my reef and they get extremely jeleous and shocked at how large my corals are and beautiful they are.. This video is retarded... 0.03 phosphate lol gimme a break, my tanks have 2ppm explain why i have no algae at all.. i cant even grow pink corraline.. and i e ven moved 2 hours away using well water from tap water.. and i still have no algae issues.. So it deff isnt a water chemistry thing.. I think the issue is something else.. in fact i think algae problems are from tanks that are too clean. You all waste too much money filtering out everything immginable in your tanks, only to buy stuff to dose the nitrates and phosphates back in the tank.. yep makes sense. Im also a firm believer that alot of this algae is caused by LED lights... anything i do try LED's even on fresh water tanks, i get agae outbreaks, algae on the glass.. green spot algae in fresh water... T5 lights have never done that for me
This is meant to be an advanced discussion. If you're just getting started, check out the 5 Minute Saltwater Aquarium Guide. It's a series of shorter videos all with direct advice and less theory. th-cam.com/play/PLBaMLrfToJyxJ1PuJZwhkxvvdFP14eV_t.html
Ready to get your binge on?! We stitched all 11 episodes of Ryan's Master Nutrients series into one full episode. ENJOY! 😊
The Holy Bible 🙏🏼
Thank you so much ❤️
I thoroughly enjoyed this!
Wow, this was great!
I wondered why his shirt was changing 😂
I always look forward to new BRSTV content. I have been able to start my journey into reef keeping because of this channel and in return, I shop BRS for most of my supplies. Thank you for your contribution to hobbyist like me!
Let me sum this up for some new reefers as I can see this video confusing a lot of people. Aim for 100:1 nitrate to phosphate and not 10:1. Personally I prefer 5ppm nitrate to ~.05 phosphate. Test your nitrate and phosphate weekly, not monthly. Early stages of your tank (less than 6 months) you might want to test even more especially right after your cycle. After 6 months to a year it will be easier and you can test less. Get your filtration adequate so you are dropping levels and never increasing - this way you have the opportunity to dose nitrate and phosphate and have better control of your levels. Do not feed your coral more than once a week and keep up with your clean up crew population. You dont need to do weekly water changes, especially on tanks larger than 50 gallons. What ever husbandry you do to your tank you must be consistent as your tanks biological filtration will depend on that consistency. Lastly, GET AN ICP TEST DONE at least every 3 months as you are more likely than not dropping or overdosing dangerous levels of elements no matter how good you think you are. Good luck peeps.
Good advice. I do similarly and run Triton method on my tank.
.05 seems kind of high. I hate it when mine gets around .02. Algae seems to start creeping in around there. It's neat to see different tanks with different personalities.
i run 10nitrate sometimes 15 and almost no Phosphate... Goldy locks zone for me
@@dontbetreadin4777 I’ve been upping my nitrates from 0-0.02 to around 0.5 and increasing very slowly while keeping PO4 low and it does seem to be working well.
What's a ICP test? Tested everything yesterday, I'm 0 on nitrate, 0 on phosphate. I'm supposed to bring the levels up? Best way to do this
Would love all of the BRS master series to be stitched together like this. Great if you need a refresher course without having to scout out videos one by one and missing vital info. Easily the best and easily digestible resource for this stuff.
These need to make a come back. I love these series and always come back to them when my tank starts showing signs of something. Fairly new to the SW hobby. Keep up the good work.
BRS... What can I say?
You have always been trying to put out the most relevant information you can. Understandably promoting your own products when it makes sense but NEVER afraid to recommend another option or better options. Even if those options are not sold by BRS.
I for one am grateful for what Ryan, BRS, and all they have added to our hobby. Always keeping things moving forward. Certainly always keeping the conversation open! Keep up these detailed informal videos.
I feel like I should have to pay a subscription fee to watch this 😂. Super high quality and you consistently answer all of my “why?” and “what if?” questions. Always blown away by your content.
Haha! I just said this to a friend of mine and said I feel like I found the bible of the reef
love the production value!! y'all are so incredibly beneficial to the hobby. bless u
This is by far the most important video a beginner should watch after they figure out the initial cycle. I’ve been in the hobby for about 6 years and im finally just getting comfortable with controlling nitrates and phosphates. More so with adding them to the tank in a controlled manner. This video is the best resource I’ve come across that fully explains nitrates, phosphates and the role they play in our tanks. Thanks BRS for another outstanding lesson learned!
Great series - you guys have done so much to the positive for reef keeping.
My reef will be a year old this May, all thanks to BRS. Honestly has helped me with any challenges my tank and myself have provided. If I run into a problem I know I can, type in a few key words that I know because of you all, bam there’s my problem. Broken down several ways and explained in extreme detail from people with serious knowledge and experience.
You guys at BRS have been a far better educational source of information than my LFS could ever offer. Thank you for your dedication to reefing
Ryan and his team are by far one of the best informative reefing channels not on just TH-cam but period. Can’t thank you guys enough! I’m a few months into my endeavors and have had nothing but success! Big credit to you guys couldn’t have done it without you. Have enjoyed every video and looking forward to many more!
take his info with a grain of salt, i disagree with nearly everything he says.. all hes doing is promoting equipment to sell.. skimmer, sumps, filters are absolutetly not needed in a reef.. i have 10,000$ in corals.. name a coral i most likely have it.. and i have no equipment.. no skimmer, no sumps.. nitrates and phosphates would make you poo yourself.. im a firm believer my success is due to T5 lights over LED's.. and by keeping the tank "dirty" meaning no filtering, no skimmer which takes out filter food for corals.. etc
There's such a different feel to this video compare to other BRStv. Big fan of all the other but the vibe of this one is really fun to listen and has really good content for all levels of refer. Thank you for sharing, this was a joy to watch in full. I love to see product reviews but this didn't felt like a pressure on hobbyist to purchase something but just to be in tune with the reef they are creating at home. Ride the wave of this video Ryan!
I really enjoy this format, there is so much information packed in here I will likely watch this a multitude of times.
Thanks, Ryan.
This is a fantastic discussion. Well done, Sir.
Though I'm just another enthusiastic hobbyist in my understanding of Marine Science. As someone educated in agricultural science, nutrient management, and conservation; I can only echo much of what you described here. Most of this was not anecdotal experience. No, your descriptions here match much of our scientific understanding, and explained in a way that makes them interrelated and usable to the hobby.
Again, well done. This is a great series.
The only part where I personally struggle, is the discussion on Ratio's. And I agree, we just don't know. From my own experience, broad ratio's work when discussing exponential growth organisms like bacteria. Again, keeping with Agriculture as the example, the Carbon to Nitrogen ratio will predictably determine how fast organic waste mineralizes (decomposes) in a setting like a compost pile. Or the specific Nitrogen to Phosphate ratio will determine how likely a natural body of water is to experience a micro-algae bloom. It's a function of the enormous number of individual organisms at scale, each being nearly identical to each other, and which reproduce at a near hourly rate.
Those ratios do not hold up if I extend it to most eukaryotic and complex organisms. It's more plausible that individual species would have a unique general ratio that may or may not match. However, what is suggestive is that they would have still evolved in an environment with a 16:1 ratio. That level of availability would have possibly shaped a species development, here you get into conversations like nature versus nurture.
And you're correct most plants do have a preferred ratio. But again, it's known to be species dependent. At a macro scale, a C3 plant does not often match a C4, or CAM plant's requirements (the 3 common types of plant photosynthesis). Even some plants within the same genus may have different demands. And even the same plant may have different needs when it's a seedling focused on root and shoot development, vice when it's an adult focused on reproduction (though to your credit, you did touch on this difference).
However, you framed the theory well; and I do think you were right to include the Redfield ratio here, as it has driven much of the conversation. But the right answer is still, we don't know. There are plausible arguments for and against it. But, given how vast and complex the natural system is (a literal Ocean), who knows...
A better theory to use in this case would be "Lebigs Law of the Minimum" which is a 150 year old agricultural principle, that describes a theoretical maximum growth rate in relation to the organisms most scarce required nutrient. It's better described today as, the limiting rate nutrient. Instead of just 2 elements in consideration, an average plant will have anywhere between 17 & 19 required elements. I suspect this theory would work very well when applied to corals, though the specific element demands would need to be adjusted.
Sorry for the side tangent, you just peaked my curiosity and got me thinking during that particular segment. But again, fantastic series.
Wow
@@artistic_spaz3724 thanks, but don't wow me. Wow Ryan. He took the time to build an exceptional lecture in a usable format. I'm just being supportive of his efforts.
Just started Reefing 9 months ago but been reading for well over 2 years . And I have to say that this is a invaluable video and has made me want to research more. Fantastic video BRStv .
Ryan! Thank you for the missing links. And I will get right on it as soon as I can. This is the conversation I needed and couldn’t find from other reefers.
More master series please. This is very relaxing and at the same time very informative.
All this information is truly amazing. I have been reading and watching for a very very long time and starting my own 40 gallon soon. Sources like brstv make it possible for normal hobbyist like me to enjoy this hobby for which I'm truly gratefull. You guys radiate passion and I hope to see lots of new information while this hobby matures even further.
Easily the most intelligent, insightful and professionally presented reef video I have seen. Well done a real credit to you.
Really love the style of this video. Whole new quality level.
Bravo my friend. this felt more formal than most of the other videos where it feels like we are just BSing about reefing. but I like it.
it's was a very well put together video not only did you dive in deep but zoomed out as well and give us the big picture.
i have been struggling with my newer tank ( RS650) that is 14 months or so keeping the N&P up. the food topic i found interesting...
keep up the great work guys!
Just started this video, but the part about Dinos is spot on. I got rid of mine by increasing my dosage of Reef Chili. I sprayed the Dinos with the Reef Chili each morning and within a week it was all gone and haven't had it since. My Nitrate and Phosphate was 0, now my 20 gallon long sits at or around 10 Nitrate and .2 Phosphate. Love your videos, thanks for your continued help!
You feed frozen? For me to keep phosphate that low I always have 0 nitrate, like I do now. Phosphate is like 0.03. Been feeding flake and stuff with some mysis mixed in every few days
@@Boogerdick69 interesting, I’m running a Fuge with Triton method and can’t keep PO4 levels down. They’re enjoy particularly high but keep creeping up but my NO3 is almost zero.
@@Boogerdick69 I’ll try cutting out flake food all together
@@Boogerdick69 I do, but I don't feed much since I only have 2 clowns, a citron goby, watchman goby and a mandarin in my 20 gallon long. I feed flakes, small TDO pellets, mysis and brine shrimps. I don't have a skimmer, sump, etc. only a 50 gallon Fluval HOB filter with Chemi-Pure but I'm able to keep everything stable with careful feeding and 5 gallon water changes once a week.
i have 40-60ppm nitrates and 1-2ppm phosphates.. and i use no filters at all on my 4 reefs my largest is my 135g 6 ft tank.. no sumps, no skimmers, nothing and i have 10,000$ in corals.. never had algae ever i cant even grow it if i tried.. i thought maybe it was my water where i lived. i used tap water.. nope i moved 3 hours away on a well now.. because its a well with sediment and iron smell i use RODI now.. tanks havent changed one bit.. which means it isnt water where you live, its the nutrients in the tank.. over filtering causes these issues.. i remember when i installed a skimmer to try it. I have pictures of the time frame too, my 6 gonioporas the sized of basket balls or slightly smaller, started slowely declining eventually bleaching when i had the skimmer on alot.. once i took it off my tank my corals started recovering..
I love you guys! You have been so helpful in my journey with reef keeping. It's amazing! Battling dinos rn at 6 months in but It looks like I'm winning! I'm so glad you take the time to try and educate and provide mentorship to those who need it. It's amazing how successful I've been so far. I haven't lost a single coral in my 90 gal, and no fish (chromis don't count....). What a great episode.
After being out of the hobby for 10 years, you guys provide great guidance, information, and products. Going from Metal Halides and water changes to LED’s, T5’s, chemical levels(nitrate,phosphate,calcium, magnesium), refugium, protein skimmer etc.
thank you for what you are doing/providing for the hobby. I can want to see what BRS will continue to do into the future.
I've been out of the hobby also for a while
May i ask why you left, $$.
Thanks
Love it. Very informative. Thanks for the time and effort to put this video together.
I'm so glad these videos are back.
This was a very interesting video thank you so much for adressing the stability more than anything
Great video!!! Looking forward to more like this! Very informational!!!
I’ve been binge watching for weeks and this video really hit the spot! My new Red Sea 850 arrives on Thursday and I can’t wait to explore what the future holds for my soon to be reef! Thanks for sharing all your knowledge freely. Any other hobby / trade would charge big money for all this knowledge, breaking it up into hundreds of lessons.
Great video. Definitely helpful for those of us that have been in the hobby a while still trying to figure out what does and doesn't work.
Thank God for BRS!
This is a fantastic video. Thank you Ryan! My Reefmat 500 is on its way and I think it’s going to be a game changer.
My observation has been that if I bottom out NO3/PO4 I get dinos, but if I let both NO3/PO4 rise too high I get algae. And imbalance of NO3/PO4 tends to lead to cyano. Not sure the specific levels, or if something else was going on chemically, but that's been what I've noticed over the years.
Having so much trouble with nutrients in my 15g. It’s either 0 0 with Dino’s or sky high with GHA. It won’t settle 😩 this is the first tank I ever started with dry rock and I will NEVER do it again. Live rock is a must. Been in the hobby 7 years and never had this much trouble before.
Biodiversity is the absolute key to creating a balanced environment, salt or fresh water. Adding wild microbiologicals is the very best way to build a system.
This was definitely a great series and really learned a lot.
Ohhh I like the new look! Quality is so nice!
You killed it! Soooo good Ryan!
After watching your videos 18months ago, I’m successfully running a NSA, dry rock, bare bottom tank in the Triton method.
My biggest problem is Nitrates are almost too low hovering around 0.2. The phosphates gradually creep up, but a little GFO cures that. I had some help from Reef Bum Keith Berkelhamer and now my SPS are booming!
Thanks
Thank you very much for making such a good informational video. It's something I've always wondered about while maintaining a reef tank for over 7 years.
I just wanted to say I truly enjoyed this video n hope you do more just like it the setup to the edits n the topic this is n amazing and very detailed and informative video n once again want to thank you for being you and doing these amazing videos!!!
This is the best informative video ever thank you BRStv
This felt like a university level class on reefing and it was so informative but a bit overwhelming too. I'm less than a year into my first tank and have made mistakes and am trying to learn but am so discouraged (fighting dino outbreak for 2 months?) Reefing is a wonderful hobby but is also not for the faint of heart!!
Saved this video to playlist and use when you need it
half of it is just his observation.. none of it true or not true.. Ive been reefing for years.. I have no sump no skimmer, no filters at all.. and i have 10,000$ in corals in my reef tanks,, acroporas, gonioporas, every single coral you can think of.. i most likely have... my nitrates are 40ppm or higher sometimes.. phosphates.. last i checked were 1-2ppm.. this dude actually measures phosphates to 0.03ppm.. cmon man.. Anytime i see people have issues with their tanks, algae, corals dying.. etc its because the tanks are way too clean..
I disagree with 95% of the gibberish he spewed out. I have tanks that look better than his, and they cost me $2-300 in equipment.. and that equipment is just the t5 lights and power head and heater..
@@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305 could you share more about your tank? Tks
I have to agree on Dino’s. Presently I am battling Dino’s after having a zero Nitrate and Phos tank. I am no dosing Nitrate and phos and adding beneficial bacteria. As Ryan has said, it tools months to get here, and now months to get out. The other thing I am finding is my coral are stressed and are no growing and that is leading to increase in Alk and Cal, which I have had to stop dosing altogether. Thank you Ryan and BRS for the Mater series.
Really good episode, great info! 👍
I sure do like this format!
Amazing presentation
Like a fish in water 👌🏻
One of the best summaries on coral husbandry ever presented. Teleported to an Ivy League university, listening to a Nobel prize winning professor’s inspirational lecture. “Tusen tack !”
Nutrients & Nutrition: my two cents on the topic. Perhaps another way to understand these terms would be …
Nutrient is a general term for any type of substance that contributes to a life form’s growth. Could say that Nutrient(s) is objective or applicable to many life forms.
Nutrition is a specific term pertaining to the needs a specific life form has to sustain its growth. Could say that Nutrition is subjective or life form specific.
Dino is what I am dealing with right now in my 32gal, couldn’t get rid of them found out my tank was too clean no nitrates 🤷🏻♂️ so now I’m reducing my water changes and seeing if that helps some
As someone who’s fought and fought to master eradicating hair algae… and won I can say I miss it. I am now slowly mastering DINOS which have stepped in as the dominant fauna. BIODIVERSITY, responsible feeding, and most important - taking time to observe is the key to success.
Well, what does it look like? Have you conquered the dinos?
In horticulture we use NPK but in reefing we only talk about Nitrogen and phosphorous and glaze over how important potassium is to photosynthesis. When diagnosing greenhouse crops they are often limited in potassium and I wonder how this crossed over to reefing. We can not just consider the host we must consider the algae that feeds them. If I were a betting man I would say down the road we will all be testing potassium.
Potassium can be tracked relative to other things you test for, So PH Alkalinity, along with your calcium and Magnesium, If those are in good ranges or slightly elevated then you most likely have plenty of potassium, this isnt always true but ALMOST always true
@@dontbetreadin4777 I agree however rates of consumption of major elements in reef tanks vary greatly from one system to another. Same with trace elements we just don't track consumption of trace elements as often (unless your doing daily icp tests)
Use a mangrove for long term nutrient planning. Not a “quick” competitor but 4 years with just one and I’m feeding algae from a cycling tank just to keep from 0’s
An interesting thought for an experiment occured to me while watching this. What if we could compare coral growth rates when given equivalent amounts of nutrients in different forms. The setups could include:
1. Chemical fertilizers only (no fish).
2. Indirect feeding via fish food.
3. Direct feeding of the corals.
4. A control tank kept as sterile as possible.
I imagine it would be hard to determine how to balance the inputs and how to control for other variables that might pop up such as nuisance algae hogging nutrients. Nonetheless I think it would be interesting to see. I'm sure #3 would see the best growth, but by how much?
That would be awesome, Setup several different tanks with very different treatment and dosing regimens, I would love to try this
Love all your videos. I'm a reefer on a tight budget. Can you do videos for people on a budget. Lights, filters, protein skimmers and so on. Thanks
Great suggestion! We've got a lot of new content coming out for 2023, so we'll see if we can add it to the list!
Highlights of my day
We NEED more of this
I like this format quite a bit more than your other videos. The enthusiasm in other videos is almost shouting and is not very easy to listen to for multiple videos at a time.
I think If Ryan cut his hair, he’d look like Arnold from Happy Days. Glad he keeps it long.
Rock on brother!
One thing I wish someone told me starting this hobby was how much nutrition control roller mats give you. Save yourself the heart ache and money, and plumb a roller mat into your system. I had to turn my protein skimmer off completely because of the nutrient removal.
On my farm I balance raising livestock, legumes and crops. These three sectors balance each other so I never add fertilizer to my soil. My soil has improved over the decades from poor mountain gravel to rich organic loam. Ideally we find the same balance in our tanks.
Hi. My question will be on a fish only and live rock saltwater tank. I just started cycling a fish and live rock saltwater tank like a week ago. Do i need to put in my filters a phosphate absorber media during cycling or when do i need to? Which do you recommend? Thanks
Stay away from phosphate absorption media during the initial cycle as the good nitrifying bacteria need some phosphate to reproduce quickly. Once your tank is cycled, only use phosphate media as a tool for if/when your phosphates are higher than your target level.
My hope is people listen to the point of "we don't really know and maybe do this" my biggest complaint with the hobby is people watch these videos and then talk down to others while still not understanding that there are many ways to attack each problem and also one fix may not work for everyone.
Can you please do a thorough and detailed test on various foods, flake, pellet, various types of frozen foods and coral foods, and give a full breaks down of the phosphate and nitrate in the foods so we can choose please?
I'm reducing the photo period on my refugium to try and get my phosphate over 0.0
My nitrate/phosphate this week are nitrates 4 phosphates .06 not sure if that great or not. Great videos as usual thank you Ryan and BRS
Not bad! We usually shoot for low, but not zero. Nitrates of 4 ppm and phosphates of 0.06 ppm certainly fit the bill.
A question If you have a bonded pair of clownfish and you want to separate them to try to rebound with a different clownfish would it work or not .?. Thank you .
That's possible, just make sure that you don't pair up a female clown (usually the larger of the two in a pair) with another female clown.
@@BRStv thank you 😊
It took 2 days but I managed to watch the entire video. I don't know if I'm smarter or dumber. Do I get a BRS trophy or something? Thanks for what you do.
🏆
@@BRStv 😆
Are there multiple kinds or species of Zooxanthellae ?
I need help. I just bought a Hanna ULR phosphate checker. My phosphate is higher than the checker range. It reads 0.90 and flashing. The Hanna ULR phosphate checker range is from 0 to 0.90.
Double check to make sure you're performing the test correctly first. If you are, then I would suggest a series of larger water changes to help knock it back. From there, it's time to evaluate the filtration system and the bioload/amount being fed so that you can curb the phosphate increase.
@@BRStv Thanks for the reply. I am so surprise to hear from you. I have check twice before I change and after i do a water change with the Hanna ULR checker. Both time shows exceed the range of the checker. That means I have to do a few large water change. I am not using RO/DI water filter system. Is that a reason why after water change the phosphate never goes down ?
Hi, I have recently dosing Aquaforest NitraPhos minus. My nitrate has been dropping from above 50 to 3.4 in about 3 weeks time but my Phosphate level is still above my Hanna Phosphate ULR checker which is higher than 0.90. I understand that Nitrate cannot be too low but Phosphate has to keep it as low as possible. Should I still continue dosing the Aquaforest NitraPhos minus ? I have tested my tap water in my area. It's 0.17. Is it too high for the tap water ? Should I use a RO/DI water system ?
Mike Paletta has excellent data on many of the best SPS reefers and they all maintain a ratio of N03:PO4 of at least 50:1 with >100:1 being best.
This is the ratio I care about. If I had 10:1 I would be adding NO3 or likely Aminos to get it up and if PO4 was too high I would be carbon dosing.
I think this is really good but I always here 100:1 being the ratio to hit so I am unsure why BRS is going with 10:1
I think it was a r2r thread that has this data. I had forgotten about it. But I remember all of the big dogs in sps growth and show tanks all had very low po4 and "crazy high" no3.
@@FreedomFanatix Yeah - at one stage I had like 0.02 PO4 and 10 NO3 and my corals didn't look great - Maybe the ratio was even 1000:1. I think 100-200 is the sweet spot. I even think the natural ratio may be 100:1 not 10:1 - maybe Ryan got it wrong... not sure....
I also hear little comments that dosing Amnios is also a form of Carbon Dosing so it may be that those SPS big dogs dose Aminos and that both increases NO3 and then the Carbon reduces NO3 + PO4 so you end up with that nice ratio.
My thoughts too. Im wondering how many new reefers are going to see this and shoot for 10 nitrates and 1.0ppm phosphate?! My tanks were best at 5ppm nitrate and around 0.05 po4. Thats 100:1 and a thriving reef. They also mention testing nutrients once a month. In my experience I would test nitrate and po4 weekly and everything else (ca, alk, mg) would be tested at least half as much. Once you dial in the big three its pretty easy to keep them stable but nutrients are always fluctuating depending on feeding, animal behavior and biological filtration health. The only thing I can agree with in this video is the point at not keeping your levels undetectable.
@@MoeReefs Yeah - on testing I need to test NO3/PO4 more like you but I test most things about once a month except Alk which I do daily with my KHD and at least weekly by hand. I think PO4 is optimal at 0.04 - but anything below 10 is good. So I would be worried about like you say newer reefers happy with high PO4
For me the nitrate levels promote more algua than phosphate, I rarely had algua with high phosphate but with low phosphate and high nitrate problem appears
Oooooooo getting fancy now
Does dosing No3 makes sense? Ore does it not makes sense, because N is needed so I better dose N if I have a too low No3 value?
I have a frag tank without fish, so no food, so I dose to get No3.
Dosing nitrate is something that definitely makes sense if you're seeing undetectable nitrates in your system. If you also have undetectable phosphates, it might just be easier to add in some fish food as that should, at least in theory, bump up both your nitrates and phosphates together.
i have a question i hope someone can answer iv been using all for reef for around a year iv been testing using a khd and hanna and my alk is always high around the 10.8 to 10 tropic marin say to keep steady at 9 ... i have a 220g system with a decent amount of corals not packed but quite a few , i have torches splitting heads etc everything seems quite happy .but i am only dosing 9ml afr per-day way less than what tm recommend all parameters seem stable from tests ? any ideas why my consumption is so low ? thank you ! ps great series
Consumption is based on the rate of calcification of your corals. Low consumption generally means slow growth. There are a number of reasons why that may be the case with a common ones being low pH or running too much or too little light (PAR) over the tank.
I have a 28G nano with lots of Zoas and LPS coral. Recently my candy can has been dying. The polyps are dying. Ive alsways had high elecations of Nitrates which Ive never been able to bring down. Its never been an issue. 100mg/L is avaregae even with weekly water changes. I moved the candy can away from a huge pollo muchroom which I think has been stinging the candy can and could be the culprite. Any ideas? Thanks
Could be a potential cause. You'll also want to look at your calcium and alkalinity levels as the candy cane corals do rely on them to build their skeletal structure. Of course, lighting can come into play too.
Brs Ted talks
cool
what about nanop with 2 or less fish and more soft corals
Have you guys thought about monitoring the office tanks and/or home tanks for a 2 to 5 year study on Nutrients ,bacteria , and algae growth? It isn't a small task or a cheap one but it would revolutionize the industry. I am sure that it would make BRS a name in the science community as well and find common problems to educate about. Just like the study on filter socks. You guys have already done most of the science and back bone of the study and the only thing left is a continuous monitoring of said tanks from testing to cleaning and how each task was performed. Details are key. I wouldn't be surprised if lotions or hand soaps are to blame for contamination in tanks and cause problems but we start blaming Nutrients. I personally try to keep my hands out of my tank or have elbow high gloves. My tank isn't the ocean and It doesn't require much to throw a closed system off balance. I take care to watch what I place in my 200 gallon tank for the well being of my animals and we all know this hobby isn't cheap. Thanks for what you guys do and wish many more years of success.
Love the thought, just hard to execute properly. Most of our office tanks are maintained by different people, so that variable alone would likely be enough to put any results into question. Something like you describe would have to be in a more controlled environment to be taken seriously. In our opinion, of course 🙂
7:13 THATS ME :D
Funky videos. Good job 👋
I had dinos for months. Cleaned the tank like crazy and then realised i should have done the opposite!!! I started to feed daily 2x with frozen foon, added some stock and they went away in DAYS! Tested po4 and no3 and they all went up a little and the dino never came back....for now.
My tank is almost two and I have always struggled with zero nitrate and phosphate. I now have green slime all over. I have tried dosing Brightwell products to get it up, but it has yet to work. Any suggestions?
Dose more. Aim for 100:1 nitrate to po4. Not 10:1. Test nitrate and po4 24 hours after you dose.
@@MoeReefs thanks Moe. I have tried dosing on two separate occasion and algae explodes on the glass and rocks. The algae is like a dark golden color. I have never seen such nasty look algae. I am guessing I need more cleanup crew to help balance it out
@@BlackGoldReefing Dose something like reef flux aka fluconazole to kill the algae. Make sure to follow the directions precisely. The trick with reef flux is for the algae to continue to grow while you are medicating it so that way it can uptake the fluconazole and die off. Turn off all skimmers and remove carbon the entire time. I recommend running gfo as soon as you see the hair algae die off to remove the excess po4 that will be released. It is kind of like a reset on the hair algae. Then aim for 5 ppm nitrate and 0.05 po4. Getting a better clean up crew is a good idea.
@@MoeReefs awesome. Thanks for the information. Will it kill the Caulerpa in my fuge?
@@BlackGoldReefing Not sure about caulerpa but it never killed my chaeto.
What are your thoughts on Tritons take on the Redfield ratio, where as I understand it, they think it’s wrong and that PO4 levels should be significantly lower than the Nitrate levels (I think it was almost 100x lower not 10x lower)
Also looking back at historical Reef Tank Acropora and SPS winning tanks have extremely low or almost undetectable PO4 levels.
What are your thoughts on this? I was of the understanding that the latest I’m understanding is that the Redfield Ratio is a red herring and the best results are much different with significantly lower PO4, especially according to Triton.
I still cant wrap my head around how richard ross's tank works
Basically there is barely any room for algae to grow because everything is covered in corals.
How do I get rid of cyano
How bad is it currently?
Check out this video: th-cam.com/video/lbn0MupHi1c/w-d-xo.html
I think the zero nitrate and phosphate Dino thing is a myth or at the least misleading. It seems more likely that dinos happen from disturbances to the bio filter in the tank. Low nutrients might just cause that by killing of some algae and disrupting the system enough. Also inverted red field ratio has been shown to have some effect for bringing on dinos with some species. They consume nitrates and phosphate faster than anything else seems to in my tank so going for high nutrients just accelerated my dinos. I think the real key to fixing them long term is just to get everything dialed in and your bio layer settled in nice on the rocks.
if you say so.. i have 40-60ppm nitrates and 1-2ppm of phosphates in my 4 reef tanks with 10,000$ in corals, using no filters, no sumps, no skimmer, i dont even test my water anymore its a waste of my time, i dose alk daily, and water change 30% every 2 weeks and thats it.. I have no dinos, no algae, nothing.. I lived in a area where i used the tap water too, no rodi.. maybe it was that tap water maybe it was golden right ? Nope it wasnt, now i moved 3 hours away on a farm with a well and use RODI and my tanks havent changed at all.. The only explanation for this is because my tank is super high on nutrients. i dont filter the stuff that FILTER FEEDING animals need.. skimmers, filters etc take everything that filter feeding corals and other animals need to live..
@@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305 Not everyone gets dinos in there tank. In fact why would you even comment if you have zero experience with dinos? Also running your tank at that nutrient level leads me to believe it’s an older more stable system since if you tried that on a new tank it would become the Gha tank. Your tank didn’t start at those values so they are completely irrelevant to the Dino discussion. Both times I have dealt with dinos on this tank I have had above 0ppm nitrates and phosphates. The first strain I had was almost exclusive to the rocks and the only reason I ever hit 0 nutrients is because the dinos were consuming it all. I then had a different strain of dinos and cyano start even though my tank has been at 8-12 ppm nitrate and 0.01-0.02 phosphate for the last two months now. If you really take a look on the forums a lot of people have been having issues with dinos and it started when there was nutrients then exploded and the dinos out competed everything in the tank. I also use rodi water. Also weirdly enough in my coral qt it bounces off zero nutrients all the time because I don’t have any fish in there and that tank has been the smoothest one I own. Never have anything but a bit of stuff to clean off the glass a couple times per week.
IMO a lot of times when people have 0 nutrients and dinos I think it’s because they don’t pay attention to their tanks enough to notice the tiny signs of the dinos starting and by the time they do it’s consuming all the nutrients in the water column so they see 0,0 and assume that’s the cause not the outcome. Also raising nutrients has never once killed dinos. Raising them and keeping them stable does though which again lends its self to the fact it’s more about stability than nutrient levels. This isn’t the case with all species of Dino but the ones it is they will explode if you just keep your lights on and keep feeding more and more.
@@KnarBurger you didnt get the part where i moved did you.. i moved and started the tank all over again.. dry sand. All my rocks dried up and in storage.. only my corals were moved from the 135 to a smaller 92g tank and cramped all together at a friends house while i was in a hotel for 3 months looking for a house. .. once i bought my 14 acre property i setuo my 135g tank. Poured my dead dry sand back in put my rocks in.. then drove 6 hours back n forth with my fish and corals in 20g tubs in my jeep. And put em in the tank. I only gave the tank 2 weeks to cycle as well.
What happened ? No algae. Just diatoms for a week or two and thats it lol. Nitrates are 50ppm right now..tank has been setup for 2 months. No gha
@@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305 you left out the part where you let your rocks dry out but I don’t think that matters in your situation. Again I’m assuming here but your corals would have been decently grown out on rocks when you took it down. The bio film on those rocks would have survived and honestly been enough to seed the new tank. It’s the same as using live rock to start a tank but even better because you didn’t have dinos and gha on them to start with since you knew the system they came from. If anything your proving that live rock is a massive bonus to starting a new tank since you were able to get nutrient levels high quickly without adverse effects. If you had started with all dry rock and went to those nutrient levels with a normal lighting schedule it would have been a mess.
@@KnarBurger bio film would have survived 4 months in a storage unit in a bin dry.. lol i dont think so.. you dont know what youre talking about.. quit please lol
ealive makes rollers for nano s
like they always say, "let's see what your tank looks like" haha does it apply for Ryan? ;)
Best part of the occasional stubble is what you learn :)
What parameters do you prefer in your own tank?
It would be great if you could sell a range of food that is IPC tested and and labelled as high Nitrate and low PO4 foods or high PO4 and low nitrate so we can select our food according to what we want to do.
meh i have 4 reef tanks, 135g 6 ft tank, 65g hexagon, 27g hexagon, 30g long. None of my tanks have sumps, skimmers, or any kind of filter except a HOB and those are off 99% of the time, i only use it in case i stir up the tank doing a water change or rearranging my scape and need a quick mechanical filter. I have 10,000$ in corals, Goniopoaras, bubble corals, elegance corals the size of basket balls. 40 types of acroporas, all other kinds of lps like torchs, hammers, everything you can think of i have. Im using T5 lights on my tanks, my nitrates are always 40ppm or sometimes higher, last i checked my phosphates were at 1-2ppm in various tanks i have tons of fish as well in these tanks.. All i do is water changes every 2 weeks about 30% each tank. I dose alkalinity and thats it. I have no algae outbreaks never have..
People think filters, sumps, skimmers and all kinds of bio media are needed, that you need to keep nitrates at near 0 and phosphates at near zero.. people test so crazily they actually care to measure phosphates at levels so low like .5ppm or .010 ppm or stupid low levels. I dont even test my water anymore.. Hell i didnt even use RODI either, i used city tap water..... I did move and have well water which smells of iron and has crazy orange color with sediment so i finally did install a 4 stage house filter with 20 inch big blue filters, and then RO DI after that and store it in a 60g trash can.. But still..
You people in the reefing community are litterally crazed when it comes to filters... none of it is needed.. absolutetly none of it.. I also am a firm believer that corals need phosphates need nitrates.. need all that floating debris you filter out, all the stuff skimmers take out.. This is probably why i have 10 types of WILD gonioporas that havent died in 2 years.. because i dont filter, i dont skim.. When i tell people what i just posted in real life, they dont believe me and think im nuts, until i show them the pics of my reef and they get extremely jeleous and shocked at how large my corals are and beautiful they are..
This video is retarded... 0.03 phosphate lol gimme a break, my tanks have 2ppm explain why i have no algae at all.. i cant even grow pink corraline.. and i e ven moved 2 hours away using well water from tap water.. and i still have no algae issues.. So it deff isnt a water chemistry thing.. I think the issue is something else.. in fact i think algae problems are from tanks that are too clean. You all waste too much money filtering out everything immginable in your tanks, only to buy stuff to dose the nitrates and phosphates back in the tank.. yep makes sense.
Im also a firm believer that alot of this algae is caused by LED lights... anything i do try LED's even on fresh water tanks, i get agae outbreaks, algae on the glass.. green spot algae in fresh water... T5 lights have never done that for me
UV UV UV UV!!!
watching you now i don’t want to start reefing, your scaring noobs off😫
This is meant to be an advanced discussion. If you're just getting started, check out the 5 Minute Saltwater Aquarium Guide. It's a series of shorter videos all with direct advice and less theory.
th-cam.com/play/PLBaMLrfToJyxJ1PuJZwhkxvvdFP14eV_t.html
Im basically hearing "Feed heavy, Skim heavy"
He said .5 for phosphate sure? Maybe .05 that decimal matters.
İyisin iyiii
Pretty sure reffeild ratio is 16:1 🤷🏻♂️