I would appreciate some feedback

[ebeez]

Hi there,
Please excuse my long winded post but I wanted to provide as much information as I can. I have been in this hobby now for about 8 years. I just upgraded my 60 gal to a 120 in February of this year. Here are the current residents in the tank:

2 Percula Clown (about 2 inches long.. about 5 years old)
1 Yellow Tang (2 inches.. about 7 months old)
1 Coral Beauty (2 inches .. about 7 months old)
1 Chocolate Chip Star (5 inch span.. about 5 years old)
1 Blood Red Fire Shrimp (2 inches .. about 7 months old)
1 Spotted Sweet Lips (3.5 inches.. about 4 months old)
1 Royal Dottyback (2 inches .. about 4 months old)
1 Orange Spotted Shrimp Gobby (3 inches.. about 5 months old)
1 Foxface (1 inch.. about 1 month old)
1 Flame Angel (2 inches.. about 6 months old)
1 Pajama Cardinal (1 inch.. added 2 weeks ago)
1 Brittle Starfish (9-10 inch span.. had this guy for about 7 years!!)

Everything is placed in the QT for 3-4 weeks prior to introducing them to my DT. I consider this to be heavy load although the size of the fish are on the small to medium side.

The set-up of the tank is as follows:
120 gal with rear corner overflows
60-70 lbs of live rock
Crystal Sump 30 gal
Carbon media reactor
Bag of GFO
Coral Box Cloud 9 in-sump skimmer
Tunze auto-topoff (RO/DI water)

Chemistry:
Ammonia is 0
Phosphate is approx .15
Nitrate is approx 5 PPM (working on bringing this down)
Nitrite is 0
Salinity is between 32 and 33
PH is approx 8.5 to 8-9
Alk is approx between 171 and 179
ORP is between 330 and 350

I do a 20-25 gal water change every other week. I feed once per day alternating between brine shrimp and CD Crossover pellets. I also add a small sheet of red seaweed every other day. I do my best not to overfeed.

So here is my question and forgive me if this seems like a silly one... the waste produced in my protein skimmer is very little. Do you think the tank is in such harmony that the waste is being absorbed efficiently?

I am used to cleaning much more with the smaller tank even though the bioload in the old tank was far less than half of what I have now.

I have attached a pic of what the skimmer pulls in a 24 hour period.

Thoughts and feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

[ca1ore]

As long as everything is looking good and your water parameters acceptable, I wouldn't worry about it. My tanks have never been heavy producers of skimmate either, and I feed quite heavily. Even with 'heavy' skimmate, the tank is not going to be at zero for nutrients. That requires other processe and techniques.

 

[joshky]

Raising the water level where you skimmer sits could get it to skim wetter. What skimmer do you have? Maybe someone else with this skimmer can help you get it tuned for your system.

 

[HidingReefer]

as long as everything is looking good and your water parameters acceptable, i wouldn't worry about it. My tanks have never been heavy producers of skimmate either, and i feed quite heavily. Even with 'heavy' skimmate, the tank is not going to be at zero for nutrients. That requires other processe and techniques.

+1

 

[ebeez]

Sounds good. Thanks for the quick replies!

 

[scubadan206]

Only 9 fish in a 120 gallon. That's nothing, and you only feed once a day.
You could double the bioload and feed four times a day, and as long as you use a decent method for nutrient control you would be fine.
Do you have corals? Is this tank just for fish and a few inverts?
The livestock you have mentioned for the most part does not care about your water parameters.
Also if you just upgraded then the system will not have any build up of "un-processed" waste to be skimmed out.

 

[Buzz1329]

Raising the water level where you skimmer sits could get it to skim wetter. What skimmer do you have? Maybe someone else with this skimmer can help you get it tuned for your system.

IMO, no way to provide meaningful answer without details of skimmer, including make, model, water depth etc. Plus details about other filtration you are using. Even then, no way to judge whether water/air flow are set to optimal levels. (Only you can make this determination.)

FWIW, I'd recommend you do some more research, read reviews and product manual again, and play around with water and air flow to see if you can coax some more skimmate from the thing. No way that your tank is so pristine that there is so little organic wastes to be removed. IMO, even though your tank is doing great now, there will come a time when you will need a fully functional skimmer.

Good luck,

Mike

 

[ebeez]

Only 9 fish in a 120 gallon. That's nothing, and you only feed once a day.
You could double the bioload and feed four times a day, and as long as you use a decent method for nutrient control you would be fine.
Do you have corals? Is this tank just for fish and a few inverts?
The livestock you have mentioned for the most part does not care about your water parameters.
Also if you just upgraded then the system will not have any build up of "un-processed" waste to be skimmed out.

Thanks Scubadan.
I upgraded the tank at the beginning of Feb.. so still new. I'm not sure that I will be getting into corals. I have 1 Purple Candelabra an that's it. The rest is what you see in my list.

 

[ebeez]

IMO, no way to provide meaningful answer without details of skimmer, including make, model, water depth etc. Plus details about other filtration you are using. Even then, no way to judge whether water/air flow are set to optimal levels. (Only you can make this determination.)

FWIW, I'd recommend you do some more research, read reviews and product manual again, and play around with water and air flow to see if you can coax some more skimmate from the thing. No way that your tank is so pristine that there is so little organic wastes to be removed. IMO, even though your tank is doing great now, there will come a time when you will need a fully functional skimmer.

Good luck,

Mike

Thanks Mike. I think the skimmer is performing fine. It does pull out Skimmate. I guess I was expecting more but I'm probably still stuck with the impressions of my previous setup and results.

 

[Sonyardo]

PH is approx 8.5 to 8-9
Alk is approx between 171 and 179
I'm not familiar with Alk scale your using, The numbers don't look right to me.

Looks like you're skimming to wet for my taste. I would be looking to make some adjustments.

 

[ebeez]

PH is approx 8.5 to 8-9
Alk is approx between 171 and 179
I'm not familiar with Alk scale your using, The numbers don't look right to me.

Looks like you're skimming to wet for my taste. I would be looking to make some adjustments.

PH measurement is using the Apex probe
Alk measurement is using the Hanna Checker test kit

 

[joshky]

IMO, no way to provide meaningful answer without details of skimmer, including make, model, water depth etc. Plus details about other filtration you are using. Even then, no way to judge whether water/air flow are set to optimal levels. (Only you can make this determination.)

FWIW, I'd recommend you do some more research, read reviews and product manual again, and play around with water and air flow to see if you can coax some more skimmate from the thing. No way that your tank is so pristine that there is so little organic wastes to be removed. IMO, even though your tank is doing great now, there will come a time when you will need a fully functional skimmer.

Good luck,

Mike

I completely agree, that's why I said for them to post the model/brand etc., in my case raising the water level would cause it to run more wet and figured I'd throw that out there. Just to clarify I didn't say it would, just that it could.

 

[marleesan]

The only thing that stands out to me is the fact that the sweetlips and yellow tang need bigger tanks

 

[scubadan206]

My Dt is 120 gallons but my total volume is around 450 gallons. I feed the fish and corals upstairs 4 times a day, and the corals downstairs once a day.
I empty my skimmer every 2-3 weeks, and my filter socks every two weeks. I run biopellets [small amount] and my nitrates never go above 0.
I designed my system to process waste without much intervention on my part. With some careful planning on your part you will be in the same boat, or tank....:rolleye1:

 

[ebeez]

My Dt is 120 gallons but my total volume is around 450 gallons. I feed the fish and corals upstairs 4 times a day, and the corals downstairs once a day.
I empty my skimmer every 2-3 weeks, and my filter socks every two weeks. I run biopellets [small amount] and my nitrates never go above 0.
I designed my system to process waste without much intervention on my part. With some careful planning on your part you will be in the same boat, or tank....:rolleye1:

LOL thanks! I empty my filter socks every week. I'm not running biopellets at the moment but may dig the reactor out of the closet soon. I have a feeling my live rock may be a source of the nitrates from what I have been reading up on. Never-the-less the amounts are not a concern for me at the moment.

 

[scubadan206]

:thumbsup:

 

[ebeez]

I completely agree, that's why I said for them to post the model/brand etc., in my case raising the water level would cause it to run more wet and figured I'd throw that out there. Just to clarify I didn't say it would, just that it could.

Model is in my original post:
Coral Box Cloud 9
sitting in 9.5 inches of water in the sump (ideal is 6-12)

I am still dialing it in so will try some variations

 

[joshky]

Model is in my original post:
Coral Box Cloud 9
sitting in 9.5 inches of water in the sump (ideal is 6-12)

I am still dialing it in so will try some variations

Ah must've missed it, never heard of that skimmer before. That's a large range variance (6-12").

 

[Maivortex]

Perhaps try reducing the flow in to the skimmer to get more residence time.......

 

[ebeez]

Ah must've missed it, never heard of that skimmer before. That's a large range variance (6-12").

I think they have been around for a year or so.. see the link below.. so far I am impressed with it. I have a RO Regal 150SSS as a back up.

http://digital-reefs.com/?p=9432