bubble king over skimming.

toothman

toothman

Premium Member
bubble king over skimming.
I have read time and time again you can not over skim a tank, but I think this is just not true.

I am not sure if it is the massive needle wheel in the royal exclusive pump grinding all the beneficial plankton/ bacteria up and destroying them. Or is it the super efficient BK skimmer leaving no food for my acros that has a detrimental on them.

BUT ONE THING FOR SURE: MY TANK DOES BETTER WITH THE SKIMMER TURNED OFF AT NIGHT, OR FOR A DAY, SOME PERIOD OF TIME OTHER THAN LEAVING IT ON ALL THE TIME. There is a noticeable growth spurt, increased PE and generally better look to acros if it does not run all the time.

Sure the parameters are normal: phos hanna .00 to .04, nitrate 0'ish. Kh, Ca, K all normal etc.

With a large tank of 400 plus gallon it is a costly plan to just try another skimmer.
 
Then you should feed more your fishes and/or corals. Your skimmer is oversized not for your tank, but for how many food and fishes you put in that tank.
 
Im upgrading my 250 gallon soon I have a vertex alpha cone 200 im looking to trade for a larger one if ur interested

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
 
I have a vertex at my office just as good as the bk the same motor but everything smaller.
Really not ready to dump the skimmer yet.

The more food, nitrates will climb, I am already a heavy feeder. Best guess is about a pound of frozen food monthly. Do you own a bk.
 
This is a video I just took the acros are doing ok, but really they do better with the skimmer off sometimes. Some say more food but really I feed about 1 lb a month of frozen food. Was thinking there might be some bk owners with similar findings.

maR0lUq6K5I
 
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I'm sure you have thought of ths already but why not put your skimmer on a timer to achieve the desired effect?
 
I've been thinking the same thing. I have a super reef octo and I've been losing Zoas, I believe, because my water has become too clean. The timer idea may be a good one. I for one never thought we would get to the point where we could overclean our water. I guess we should be careful what we wish for. ;)
 
I have the timer on the table, i have used it in the past. 2 yrs ago i ran the timer for 6 months and i think the on of burned out the motor. My wallet did not enjoy buying a new royal exclusive motor.

I just can not believe i am the only one with a timer on their skimmer or have skimmer over load.
 
I have the timer on the table ready to plug in, i have used it in the past. 2 yrs ago i ran the timer for 6 months and i think the on /ofF burned out the motor. My wallet did not enjoy buying a new royal exclusive motor.

I just can not believe i am the only one with a timer on their skimmer or have skimmer over load.

I was also thinking it might be a problem with the super spinning needle wheel, killing plankton/bacteria, that are helpful to acros.
 
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Well then you have to decide, buy a lower rated skimmer or start feeding coral specific foods. To answer your recurring question, no you are not the only person suffering from over skim. I have heard a number of solutions, from what has already been posted to dumping back skimate. Pick the one that works best for your situation.
 
I have BK deluxe 300 and BK supermarin 250. IME, these are the best skimmers in consistency and performance. I prevent the over-skimming by "dry smimming". Only clean the collection cup once a week, and my phosphate level in both systems checked at 0.06-0.08 towards dirty side.
 
I put the timer on yesterday and have it on 12 off 12, my observation is: just as much skimmate came out on the day skimming as if it ran 24 hrs. My thinking is there will just be more food in the night when the acros are feeding and what ever would have been skimmed out in 24 hrs is now skimmed out in 12 hrs.

By the way I do dose zeo food, bac, aminos, and sometimes coral vitalizer. As well as the zeovit zeolites.

Tested phos this morning hanna .02.

I will continue to use this method for increased coral growth in my tank, unless parameters begin to change.

NEW ADDITION. REALLY STARTING TO LIKE THOSE DEEP WATER CORALS.

~
 
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I over skim on a 180g tank with my 300 cone. My corals were getting pale but now I dose foods at night when polyps are extended. Simple fix.
I wouldn't want daily on/off with a $500 replacement. I'm running 2 pumps
 
try dosing different AAs. like Xtra

with Zeovit, you skim DRY right ?

what is the flow through the reactor ? how much zeoliths ?

what is the K+ level and tested by what ?

you have experimented, that the skimmer is removing "something" your corals like.

so your next experiment, should aim to find that "something"

leaving skimmer off is not a good idea, it will lower oxygen in tank, which would lower calcification in turn, and in events of bacterial bloom or .... you do not have a skimmer to pull out the bed stuff before PH and oxygen levels fall too low. this is specially true at night, when the co2 concentration are higher and O2 levels can drop dramatically, and actually de-calcify the corals !

there are some info on here
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/12/corals2
 
That is a very interesting article. As a result of this I am not going to turn my skimmer off any more. I also feed my tank a hour after the lights go off, oyster feast, roti powder, etc. Seems I should never feed at night also. This could be my answer: stop feeding at night so calcification is not slowed. Thanks Allmost.

My next experiment could be to turn the skimmer off in the daytime, but I really do not want to burn the motor out.

I do have phol's, aminos, stylo glow, iron, sponge power,snow, zyme. Only keep 2 bags of zeovit in the tank, I think it is enough.
 
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toothman said:
That is a very interesting article. As a result of this I am not going to turn my skimmer off any more. I also feed my tank a hour after the lights go off, oyster feast, roti powder, etc. Seems I should never feed at night also. This could be my answer: stop feeding at night so calcification is not slowed. Thanks Allmost.

My next experiment could be to turn the skimmer off in the daytime, but I really do not want to burn the motor out.

I do have phol's, aminos, stylo glow, iron, sponge power,snow, zyme. Only keep 2 bags of zeovit in the tank, I think it is enough.
Click to expand...

anytime.

also the flow through the reactor is important, it can strip corals tissue, f0r 2 bags, 2L, flow should be less than 200 GPH.

another thing would be the fuge, but if things going well, and more feeding would solve it then removing the fuge might be not worth all the work :)
 
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