skimmer question

You can't overskim imo, the more skimmate the better you are. If your not skimming much at all then thats not a good sign. It depends on your tank size. For my 125g i like 1-3cups per day of very dark skimmate. For a 55g i'd say 1 cup of dark skimmate and so on. How big is your tank and what kind of skimmer do you have.
 
I have a 180gal with a 30gal frag tank plumbed into it and a 40 gal sump. the total water volume is about 180gal.

I bought a jeffs exotic fish skimmer (euro reef knockoff) it doesnt seem to pull much. maybe half a cup in a week. I dont really know what the skimmer is rated for. I just asked what skimmer would work for my tank and jeff picked one out for me.

the skimmer is about 10" dia and about 20" tall (I'm guessing) it runs off a sedra 5000 with a needle wheel.

here is my stocking list

4"-5" sohal

2"-3" tomini

2) 1" clowns

5) 1" chromis

1" sixline

1"-2" orchid dottyback

I feed 1 cube of mysis everyday.

If I was underskimming would the nitrates be higher?
 
Well, if you were underskimming and do water changes your nitrates will pry be 10-20. But a cup every week is not much. I don't have any fish in my 125 and skim a few cups a day of nasty brown stuff. I just changed skimmers too, so once this one breaks in i'm expecting it to pull about 4cups a day for a few days. Then i'll add my fish back from qt. But i'd say you are definately underskimming. You should be wanting to pull a few cups a day imo.
 
Sounds like its underskimmed imo, I had a remora pro and was having the 10-20 issue with water changes but have been at 5 or undetectable since i switched to a different in sump skimmer.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9860694#post9860694 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dtm
the skimmer is about 10" dia and about 20" tall (I'm guessing) it runs off a sedra 5000 with a needle wheel.

A sedra 5000 is way too underpowered for a skimmer that size.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9861340#post9861340 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TwistedTiger
A sedra 5000 is way too underpowered for a skimmer that size.
Agree, you probably need 2 or 3 pumps to skim adequately with that body size.
 
would it better to buy a new skimmer,(I've been looking at the bubble master 200) or just add pumps to my current skimmer?
 
Well, it depends on how much money you have. You could get the bubble master 200 and it would be great or you could just plumb a much larger NW pump and it should work for you no prob. A large sedra or genx4100 nw should do the trick. Just make sure its something in the 1000-1500gph range. That seems very underpowered and teh skimmer body seems very addequate for that tank size. The big question i would have is what diameter is the neck on that skimmer and do you have the water leveler set high or low with that flow. If its very high, you could do much more gph, but if its set low, the neck might be to small diameter wise and it may overflow your riser tube with water.
 
well when I got home today I measured the skimmer body, its actually 7" dia and 24" tall with a 4" dia neck

I do have the water level adjuster as high as I can get it. so I'm assuming there is not enough flow?
 
Hmm, well i'd say that 750gph would be max on that skimmer unless you recirc'd it. You should be getting some better skimmaete though if it was a better design. Maybe you should mod the venturi on your pump or meshmod it to draw more air. Both of those should improve the skimming......but a half cup in a week with that bioload.....thats bad man.
 
No, you take some mesh(enkamat 4) and twistie tie a few pieces on to your needle wheel impeller to pull more air and chop the bubbles finer. Your impeller could be regular as well. I posted some pics of what it looks like last night on the via aqua club thread if you want to see.
 
I disagree with the nitrate issues. I run at the moment a Berlin classic on my 90 gallon display my Bullet 3 is not hooked up at the moment im waiting for the sump to finish. But I have undetectable nitrates and such and i have a heavy bio load in my tank. Protein skimming cant be the only colperate to your high nitrates at the moment.

Yes they can help the nitrate issue but i dont believe this is the only reason
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9868179#post9868179 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mushumatt
I disagree with the nitrate issues. I run at the moment a Berlin classic on my 90 gallon display my Bullet 3 is not hooked up at the moment im waiting for the sump to finish. But I have undetectable nitrates and such and i have a heavy bio load in my tank. Protein skimming cant be the only colperate to your high nitrates at the moment.

Yes they can help the nitrate issue but i dont believe this is the only reason

hmm, I wonder what it is then? I can live with 10 but not 20
 
Nitrates

Nitrates

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9868179#post9868179 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mushumatt
I disagree with the nitrate issues. I run at the moment a Berlin classic on my 90 gallon display my Bullet 3 is not hooked up at the moment im waiting for the sump to finish. But I have undetectable nitrates and such and i have a heavy bio load in my tank. Protein skimming cant be the only colperate to your high nitrates at the moment.

Yes they can help the nitrate issue but i dont believe this is the only reason


Mushmatt, reason i feel the nitrates will be taken care of with better skimming is because he says he does water changes and has a decent size sump, lr, no bioballs i'm guessing and those fish are heavy eaters imo. His trates aren't really that high, but there just evident enough imo that his skimmer isn't working as well as one would hope. 10-20 isn't to bad and seems like a underskimmed #. If his trates were around 80 it would be a different story.
 
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