No skimmer yet...

wesminsmith

New member
Hey guys, my skimmer has not arrived in the mail yet and there is a lot of foamy...what I am assuming is protein...stuff on top of my water. Is there anything I should do like trying to manually skim it off the top or just wait it out? Thanks guys!
 
No Air

No Air

No air through the power heads and the spray bar that my water returns from the filter through is completely submerged so there is no splash at all. I will try to get some pics if I can.
 
you have an overflow? or add new sand lately? My tank got real foamy after I put sand in it.

And I used to have a very thin layer of something on top of the water before too. sounds like you might need more water movement.

what kind of powerheads do you have?
 
I have three marineland penguin 660 powerheads that are rated at 170GPH. I dont know how much exactly is coming out of my spray bar but between it all there are no dead spots in the tank. I have about 110 lbs of live rock I picked myself out of the ocean, about 8 hermit crabs, and a few regular crabs. The tank has been up for about a month, the cycle went fast...in about 3 weeks. The only fish in there now is a 3 stripe damsel, he has been in for about a week and is doing really well.
 
You have a sump with overflow??

And personally I wouldnt add anything for another month or so... really let the tank settle in. You would be surprised at what you probably have in your rock that you pulled from the ocean..

Take a glass(has to be real glass) at least 3 inches tall and put a piece of small shrimp in the bottom of it. make sure it wont float away. leave it in the tank over night, bet you have a couple stone crabs in there. They will try and get to the shrimp and slide down the glass and wont be able to get out.
 
No sump or overflow yet...BTW where can I get some acrylic on island? I really want to start that project ASAP. Are the crabs bad to have in my tank? I did a freshwater dip and got most if them out, I still have not seen or heard any mantis shrimp. Does anyone know if ACO is open tomorrow, I have never been there but I want to check it out.
 
ACO is open tomorrow, go after 3pm they open late. if you cant find it give me a call i live 10 min away from there.

Acrylic you can get at makeman 100$ for sheet 5mm(little less than 1/4") there is another place thats cheaper but dont know where it is.. Sango-chu knows where its at.
 
Hey guys, I will go to the place tomorrow (Acrylic place) and get a good grid for it. I will post it ASAP. They are closed tomm but U can still take a pic of the front and send it out.
 
ouch.. hope you didnt pay to much for that.

I see that you have a 55gal tank. Your going to need a much better skimmer than that to not have any issues.

Hurry up and get your sump built.
 
what kinda sump you need? I have a 20g tank converted to a sump. its my old one i used coral for it.. check it out in my sump build if you want it its yours.. you will need to get coral.
it will need a hang on overflow or drill your tank..
 
That sounds good Alex, we will have to hook up this weekend and work something out, maybe you can come to my house and give me some pointers. As far as an overflow, I was thinking of just making a wier out of some acrylic...I'm too scared to drill my tank!
 
I drilled my tanks and if the glass broke, I just replaced it. Do you have anything in your tank right now? The problem is not so much as drilling the tank, its getting the bulkheads to fit the tank with. I am sure we can come up with some make shift plumbing. I prefer to have the tank drilled because it makes the overall appearance better and you get more room in the back of the tank.

I also have a wier box you can you borrow with the lifter pump if you still choose not to drill.

I heard someone in here might know of a diller. I drilled my own.
 
i was on Kadena today,, but not much time.. if your are cycling the tank , now its the time to decide if you want it drilled before you add live stock. i have 2 totes to drain the water in. is the tank glass or acrylic? I have drilled acrylic 1/4" if no problems. just need a spray bottle with water and a hole saw. bethnjeremy has the hole saw. now for bulkheads, we can make something up at the hardware store. or ask bethnjeremy they might have some extra bulkheads they might sell.. either way we can make this work. if glass we just need a glass bit.. they have them out in town.
 
Well, I do have a few things in the tank. I have a 3 stripe damsel, a chocolate chip starfish, and an Auriga Butterflyfish. As well as the hitch-hikers that came with the rock. I have a black back ground on my tank so I'm not worried about the plumbing from the wier. Has anyone built a wier before? The only real reference I have is from www.melevsreef.com . My tank is glass BTW.
 
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