callmesaul8889
New member
Looks like the skimmer pump surges are from either a wobbly prop shaft or some worn out bearings. It's still producing nice frothy bubbles, though.
80g SPS dominated issues
- Thread starter callmesaul8889
- Start date
callmesaul8889
New member
After replacing the rear bearing on the prop shaft, the pump no longer surges. Royal Exclusiv support was very helpful regarding getting optimal performance out of the skimmer as well. Overall I'm very impressed with the quality of this skimmer and their support department. .
callmesaul8889
New member
After doing a water change yesterday, my skimmer is going crazy again. I had to lower the water level gate valve as low as it would go, and it still fills the cup in with mostly water in about 35 minutes. I have no clue what's going on.
I'm still feeding more than I was previously, but I'm starting to see signs of overfeeding. Coral color and progression seemed to have come to a halt. I checked every single one of my parameters yesterday:
alk - 8.3 (was 8.1 before the water change)
cal - 430
mag - 1320
no3 - 1
po4 - 0.03
temp - 78 - 80
ph - 8.05 - 8.25
trace elements:
Fe - 0
K - 400
I - 0.06
The only hiccup is that my alk dropped down to 8.1dkh before the water change. I bumped up my doser by 1ml to accommodate for that and I'm testing over the next few days. On another note, iron in my system is completely 0. I tested my water and newly mixed water. I'm planning on following Red Sea color program, and they recommend iron at .015ppm. This could be a problem in the future, but I doubt it's reason enough for the awful polyp extension, growth, and color of some of my SPS.
One example is that I purchased a freak hair pavona on 9/25. At the time, this is what it looked like:
Here's a pic of it from yesterday:
The corals seem to just lose that 'fullness' like the body tissue is being sucked dry. Other pieces (rainbow monti) simply don't have any zooxanthella, but the polyps come out and the frag is still alive. Here's a pic of that:
I'm still feeding more than I was previously, but I'm starting to see signs of overfeeding. Coral color and progression seemed to have come to a halt. I checked every single one of my parameters yesterday:
alk - 8.3 (was 8.1 before the water change)
cal - 430
mag - 1320
no3 - 1
po4 - 0.03
temp - 78 - 80
ph - 8.05 - 8.25
trace elements:
Fe - 0
K - 400
I - 0.06
The only hiccup is that my alk dropped down to 8.1dkh before the water change. I bumped up my doser by 1ml to accommodate for that and I'm testing over the next few days. On another note, iron in my system is completely 0. I tested my water and newly mixed water. I'm planning on following Red Sea color program, and they recommend iron at .015ppm. This could be a problem in the future, but I doubt it's reason enough for the awful polyp extension, growth, and color of some of my SPS.
One example is that I purchased a freak hair pavona on 9/25. At the time, this is what it looked like:
Here's a pic of it from yesterday:
The corals seem to just lose that 'fullness' like the body tissue is being sucked dry. Other pieces (rainbow monti) simply don't have any zooxanthella, but the polyps come out and the frag is still alive. Here's a pic of that:
callmesaul8889
New member
I figured I'd update this thread in case someone is seeing similar issues as I was (starving/pale SPS with heavy feeding and algae symptoms). The O2 level in my water was absurdly low. I started running a micro-bubbler in my sump overnight to keep the water oxygenated.
I also cut down on how much I run my skimmer. I'm now running it 4hrs a night. Any more than that and it will strip the tank of all the nutrients.
Another thing I noticed was that my sand would be the only place where algae would accumulate, so I started heavily vacuuming the sand and even just stirring it with a turkey baster. I had a TON of detritus trapped in my sandbed, especially in the sandbed that I kept in my refugium.
Last but not least, I switched salts to Tropic Marin, and switched dosing supplements to ESV.
I also cut down on how much I run my skimmer. I'm now running it 4hrs a night. Any more than that and it will strip the tank of all the nutrients.
Another thing I noticed was that my sand would be the only place where algae would accumulate, so I started heavily vacuuming the sand and even just stirring it with a turkey baster. I had a TON of detritus trapped in my sandbed, especially in the sandbed that I kept in my refugium.
Last but not least, I switched salts to Tropic Marin, and switched dosing supplements to ESV.
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