Skimmer suggestions?

[levon15]

This guy has one of each running now, might be worth you emailing him and seeing what he says..


http://www.reeftank.com/modules.php?name=Blog

 

[Shooter7]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9437504#post9437504 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by levon15
Are you going to be selling that euroreef dave?
Could offset that octopus pricetag if you sold it.

That's part of the plan, yes.

I wouldn't even be considering buying another one if I didn't think my current one would be helping finance the new one. It's in great shape and is doing a stand up job for me, and I've been watching the sale forums and they get snapped up pretty quickly when they come up for sale, so yeah, if I got a new one and once I made sure it was working ok for me, I'd put the ER up for sale. I have another thing or two that I am planning on selling soon too, so I'll probably do them all at the same time, if and when I do it.

 

[trottman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9417444#post9417444 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Shooter7
Yeah, that was an angle I had considered and is still open to doing, maybe adding the bigger pump and perhaps doing the mesh mod thingy. Right now with just the 3500 on my skimmer I'm having to empty the cup every 2-3 days. It's pulling a lot of stuff out.

Any other feedback on this approach?

why change something that is working well.

before you spend money on that take into consideration that the best sps tanks really only focus on lighting, flow, and water changes.

beef up on those three, save money, and have a great looking tank.

 

[Shooter7]

Valid argument, and one that I have considered. I'm not concerned that my current skimmer isn't working well, because it is. I am concerned that it is just not enough for the job. For example, I might work my butt off and be the best assemly line worker at xyz factory, but if the things I'm assembling are going by in numbers I can't possibly handle, then the job is still not being done as well as it could be. I look at what's been going on with my tank and the algae that I'm now fighting and I ask, why am I getting so much of this stuff when my bioload is low, my feeding has been low, my flow is decent (over 30x volume), and my lighting is fine (newer ushio 10k's and vho actinics). My skimmer fills up very quickly though, so I'm wondering, if I had an even better skimmer, wouldn't it pull out even more of the stuff that I seem to be missing that is helping fuel this algae? And, as I've said before, this skimmer is not really rated for the water volume I have. It has been a great skimmer and continues to produce, I just think I need something more substantial. And the SPS guys are some of the ones I've been talking to. There's a few guys in the SPS forum here that I got my frags from and I talk to them whenever possible when I'm trying to tweak my tank to make things better. It was a couple of them who suggested a skimmer upgrade and the thought process sounded reasonable to me. I'm almost at my wits' end with this algae, though, and I'm about ready to yank the rocks out of there, brush them down, and rebuild the rockwork again. At least my corals are doing ok. Most of my SPS are growing pretty well and my zoas, which many had lost color and growth, are filling back in and coloring up well. I'm about to revamp my 10g too. Going to try out a closed loop type of setup and MH lighting over it.

 

[chadfarmer]

so you thank a skimmer is going to fix your algea problem---

i fought algea since i used zeo and i am slowly getting a foot hold more than 6 months ago



i also have 2 lbs of phosphate material in my reactor --- my fish are lucky to get feed


i have been using my overflow as a refugium and put some algea in there to grow

every week it gets better and my skimmate is less and less every week

 

[kpc01]

in my case, I have a berlin on a 200+ tank so I think its time for an upgrade! I found a ER CS6-2 I was going to get but also been looking at the octopus now

 

[Shooter7]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9438880#post9438880 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chadfarmer
so you thank a skimmer is going to fix your algea problem---

No, I never said that a skimmer is going to "fix" my algae problem. I haven't approached this in a one thing to fix the problem way, I realize that pretty much everything with these tanks is a bit more involved than that. Obviously, I'm trying to alter food, feeding schedule, phosphate removal media, flow redirection, and on and on. I simply think that I could help the situation with a skimmer that is rated more for the size of my tank or larger. Hell, I think you were even one of the people in the past who said something to me about the skimmer being too small for my setup when I first got going.

 

[chadfarmer]

i said that that model is underpowered with the sedra 3500 on it

the sedra 5000 is a better match

 

[spongebobby]

I use flex tubing to supply. Skimmer comes with all the plumbing needed on the skimmer side. Originally I was using a MAG5 to supply skimmerand 2 reactors but was to much for the reactor's. So I cut down the flow to reactors and skimmer was getting to much. So I went to a mag3 wide open just for the skimmer.Here is a pic of it for you.

[/IMG]

It's a tank of a skimmer and very easy to mod with the PF4. Mine has been running flawlessly since the mod.Going on about two or three months. I've had this skimmer for about 5 months and really can't say anything bad about it.

 

[Shooter7]

Let me fix that for ya.