Many years ago when I started in this hobby, my main mission was to keep nutrients as low as possible. But it was tougher back then since the equipment was not as efficient or advanced as what is available today. Yes, I used a skimmer, did regular water changes, avoided overfeeding my fish, and employed mechanical filtration. I wasn’t a refugium guy but others used this method successfully for nutrient export by growing macro algae and promoting the growth of nitrate-consuming bacteria. Eventually, GFO was developed to manage phosphates and I jumped on that bandwagon to keep my levels near zero. Over time, technological advances led to many more innovations, giving reef keepers a slew of options such as bio pellet reactors and liquid additives MORE