bbk dc 200 rd3

stevesuard

New member
Hello,
I have a 650 liter sps tank with a bbk dc 200 rd3 skimmer
how many W should you set the Rd3? put it all the way down so that there is more air flow?
 
Hello,
I have a 650 liter sps tank with a bbk dc 200 rd3 skimmer
how many W should you set the Rd3? put it all the way down so that there is more air flow?

I would suggest 28-32 watts. Its not about "œmore" air flow. Its about contact time and balance and sometimes less is more. 28-32 watts for a 200 sized skimmer gives a good amount of contact time with a proper balance of air to water flow for that sized skimmer. Fine tune the pump speed to get the most dense foam. You want the foam thick and slow moving so the bubbles are pushing the dissolved organics to the top of the head without fast moving bubbles that burst at the surface. You should find the optimal speed for your load within that range.
 
I would suggest 28-32 watts. Its not about "œmore" air flow. Its about contact time and balance and sometimes less is more. 28-32 watts for a 200 sized skimmer gives a good amount of contact time with a proper balance of air to water flow for that sized skimmer. Fine tune the pump speed to get the most dense foam. You want the foam thick and slow moving so the bubbles are pushing the dissolved organics to the top of the head without fast moving bubbles that burst at the surface. You should find the optimal speed for your load within that range.
I have 0.02 of po4 and 2 of no3 my skimmer does little foam 1cm per week is normal?

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I have 0.02 of po4 and 2 of no3 my skimmer does little foam 1cm per week is normal?

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Skimmers do not remove much if any phosphate. .02 Po4 and 2 No3 is nothing and is VERY low. The bigger question would be how many fish you have and what size as that is about only way to determine what would be a normal amount of skimmate for a 200 sized skimmer. Also knowing if you are running any kind of fleece filter setup would help too.
 
Skimmers do not remove much if any phosphate. .02 Po4 and 2 No3 is nothing and is VERY low. The bigger question would be how many fish you have and what size as that is about only way to determine what would be a normal amount of skimmate for a 200 sized skimmer. Also knowing if you are running any kind of fleece filter setup would help too.
I have 2 surgeons, 6 chromis, 1 centropydge, 2 ocelaris, 6 damsels, and I have no filters

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I have 2 surgeons, 6 chromis, 1 centropydge, 2 ocelaris, 6 damsels, and I have no filters

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Your skimmer is way too big for your current fish load and about 1cm a week of skimmate is to be expected. For a display your size that skimmer is expected to have a heavy fish load of about 1/2" of fish per display gallon. Your only option with that sized skimmer and your current fish load would be to close the wedge pipe some or raise the sump level and run the skimmer a bit more wet if you want to see more skimmate.
 
Your skimmer is way too big for your current fish load and about 1cm a week of skimmate is to be expected. For a display your size that skimmer is expected to have a heavy fish load of about 1/2" of fish per display gallon. Your only option with that sized skimmer and your current fish load would be to close the wedge pipe some or raise the sump level and run the skimmer a bit more wet if you want to see more skimmate.
Also werde ich Fisch hinzufügen. bevor ich s 45w auf dem rd3 war, seit ich 32w meinen ph eingestellt habe, um die Nacht zu senken, in der ich bei 7,8 bin, liegt es daran, dass es weniger Luftstrom gibt?

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Also werde ich Fisch hinzufügen. bevor ich s 45w auf dem rd3 war, seit ich 32w meinen ph eingestellt habe, um die Nacht zu senken, in der ich bei 7,8 bin, liegt es daran, dass es weniger Luftstrom gibt?

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It’s possible that your pH dropped a little bit with the lower speed as less air and water is going through the skimmer. The skimmer performs better at the lower speed though. You get better contact time at the proper speed which makes the skimmer perform more efficiently and improves dissolved organic export. That said, don’t chase pH. There is nothing wrong with 7.8 pH at night. My tank ran around 7.8 at night and 8.0-8.1 during the day and my coral was literally growing out of the water. My tank ran that way for 21 years straight. Never an issue. Either way, the skimmer will perform better at the lower speed. 44 is WAY too high for that skimmer. I ran 38 on my Supermarin 250. 48 is about as high as I’d recommend for a 300 sized skimmer which has much more internal volume.
 
It's possible that your pH dropped a little bit with the lower speed as less air and water is going through the skimmer. The skimmer performs better at the lower speed though. You get better contact time at the proper speed which makes the skimmer perform more efficiently and improves dissolved organic export. That said, don't chase pH. There is nothing wrong with 7.8 pH at night. My tank ran around 7.8 at night and 8.0-8.1 during the day and my coral was literally growing out of the water. My tank ran that way for 21 years straight. Never an issue. Either way, the skimmer will perform better at the lower speed. 44 is WAY too high for that skimmer. I ran 38 on my Supermarin 250. 48 is about as high as I'd recommend for a 300 sized skimmer which has much more internal volume.
Ich habe einen Bruchstift am Rotorlager. Glauben Sie, dass dies zu Problemen führen kann?

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Ich habe einen Bruchstift am Rotorlager. Glauben Sie, dass dies zu Problemen führen kann?

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A broken pin on the needle wheel will not cause any noticeable difference is the skimmers performance.
 
on the manual is maximum 250mm it would be a better foam if I lower it?

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It's all about your fish load and the amount of dissolved organics in the system. The more fish/dissolved organics in your system, typically the lower the sump level. The less you have, the higher the sump level. This is why we give you a range. Set your pump between 28 and 32 watts. Use the speed to fine tune the skimmer so you get the most dense foam. With the wedge pipe wide open, you can adjust your sump level so the break line (line where bubbles turn to foam) is about 1" below the bottom of the cup. Then use the wedge pipe to fine tune from dry to wet by closing the wedge pipe a little bit. A tank with a really light load may need a deeper sump level where as a tank with a truly heavy load relative to that skimmer size would need a lower sump level otherwise it could overflow with the wedge pipe wide open. Hope that makes sense to you but I think your sump level will be just fine as long as you're break line isn't well up into the neck with the wedge pipe wide open.
 
It's all about your fish load and the amount of dissolved organics in the system. The more fish/dissolved organics in your system, typically the lower the sump level. The less you have, the higher the sump level. This is why we give you a range. Set your pump between 28 and 32 watts. Use the speed to fine tune the skimmer so you get the most dense foam. With the wedge pipe wide open, you can adjust your sump level so the break line (line where bubbles turn to foam) is about 1" below the bottom of the cup. Then use the wedge pipe to fine tune from dry to wet by closing the wedge pipe a little bit. A tank with a really light load may need a deeper sump level where as a tank with a truly heavy load relative to that skimmer size would need a lower sump level otherwise it could overflow with the wedge pipe wide open. Hope that makes sense to you but I think your sump level will be just fine as long as you're break line isn't well up into the neck with the wedge pipe wide open.
Hello since our discussion I have followed your advice my po4 have risen to 0.07. i have hardly any foam can you help me?

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Hello since our discussion I have followed your advice my po4 have risen to 0.07. i have hardly any foam can you help me?

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You aren't going to have much foam since your low fish load doesn't generate a lot of dissolved organics to build a good foam head in that size skimmer. It's too large of a skimmer for your load. Also, protein skimmers do very little for Po4 reduction. That is why many of us use GFO, Rowaphos or other Po4 exporting media to manage Po4.

If you want to remove more water from your tank with minimal skimmate, you can increase the pump speed slightly or just raise the level inside the skimmer by closing the wedge pipe a bit or raising your sump level slightly.
 
You aren't going to have much foam since your low fish load doesn't generate a lot of dissolved organics to build a good foam head in that size skimmer. It's too large of a skimmer for your load. Also, protein skimmers do very little for Po4 reduction. That is why many of us use GFO, Rowaphos or other Po4 exporting media to manage Po4.



If you want to remove more water from your tank with minimal skimmate, you can increase the pump speed slightly or just raise the level inside the skimmer by closing the wedge pipe a bit or raising your sump level slightly.
OK, thanks . a question can the turnover of the bac play a role?

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OK, thanks . a question can the turnover of the bac play a role?

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Not sure what you mean by turnover of bacteria but the bacteria that we covet in our systems reduces nitrates as opposed to phosphates. Now you have a lot of red slime (Cyanobacteria) and you kill that off, then that can release some phosphates.
 
Not sure what you mean by turnover of bacteria but the bacteria that we covet in our systems reduces nitrates as opposed to phosphates. Now you have a lot of red slime (Cyanobacteria) and you kill that off, then that can release some phosphates.
I don't have cyanobacteria. I am talking about the speed of the water passing through the decant. Can this change the quantity of scum?

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I don't have cyanobacteria. I am talking about the speed of the water passing through the decant. Can this change the quantity of scum?

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Decant? Do you mean sump? Or skimmer? Faster water through the sump won’t really impact things and not enough contact time or too much contact time can impact the skimmers performance but when the skimmer is properly tuned, the amount of scum is limited by the amount of dissolved organics in the water.

When the skimmer is oversized relative to the fish load, the skimmer will not perform consistently because there won’t be enough dissolved organics (Proteins) in the water for the skimmer to be able to produce enough foam to keep the neck consistently filled with foam. The proteins allow the bubbles to bind together in chains that create the foam. When there isn’t enough proteins, the skimmer will just make bubbles and not foam. So too big of a skimmer relative to the load will produce skimmate (scum) for a day or two and then slow down or stop producing until the dissolved organics (proteins) from the fish waste build back up and allow the skimmer to produce enough good foam to keep the neck filled with foam and push the organics out into the cup. Then once the organics are reduced which will happen fast when the skimmer is way oversized for the load, the skimmer will just stop producing skimmate and the foam will drop a bit in the neck. During this time, the dissolved organics in the water will increase slowly over the course of days or weeks until the skimmer can generate a good foam head again and then the cycle repeats resulting in nutrient levels in the system that go up and down and up and down. It can take anywhere from a few days to a week or more for the skimmer to produce skimmate again depending on the load but your load is VERY low for this sized skimmer. As such, the only way you are going to see any kind of consistency is to run the skimmer VERY wet which means raising the level inside the skimmer. Increasing the pump speed by 2 watts or so will help skim wetter without adjusting the sump level or having to close the wedge pipe. You will remove more water by doing that but if filling your cup is important to you, then that is the only way to do it with such a light fish load. Speeding the flow through the sump won’t fix your concern and speeding the water though the skimmer won’t either. That skimmer is designed for much larger loads and it’s starving.
 
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