Started vinegar, skimmer working overtime!

Hey rovster, how high to you have the water volume on that skimmer. I have a nac 5.5 and i have never seen no were near as much as that. Even when i was carbon dosing vinegar as for about 3 weeks. Granted i only have 4 fish , 2 clowns a green cromis and a yellow tang (small). Tank is my 62cube. Idk this skimmer is so dang finicky, i just cant find the sweet spot on it. But it could be my small bioload
 
Water level is pretty high actually. It's a small pump. You should see the skimmate today. Really dark and almost getting syrup like. I'm trying to tune it to skim a little wetter. Concentrated stuff!
 
Wow thats crazy skimmate, mine is horrible. I dont know why but this nac5.5 is a pain to tweak. I just cant get good dark skimmate like that, i guess is my small bioload. What do you think
 
Bioload has a lot to do with it. I have 8 fish in a 30 ;) That said, you should be able to adjust the skimmer to skim dry or wet. Mine started wet, went from light green to medium green (picture posted) and now its a dark green almost black and getting thicker. I'm actually trying to tweak mine at the moment by turning the tube that controls the water level in the skimmer. Been turning it a small amount every day, but still have not noticed a difference. I'm getting less skimmate, but its definitely more concentrated. I'll post a pic when I have a chance.....

It does sound like your bioload is super light. Are you experiencing any issues that would leave you to believe that your nutrient export should be better?

This tank was origionally my quarantine tank. For a while, I had a tang in there with one other fish. Skimmer used to produce decent skimmate. When I removed the tang, skimmer was hardly pulling anything. Proof enough for me that tangs are poop machines, LOL!
 
You can always try to elevate the skimmer higher if adjusting the air intake valve isn't enough. Water level that the skimmer sits in always plays a role.
 
Well , the tank was fishless for about 3 weeks and the corals were looking pale like yours. Zoas were all shriveled, however i was feeding coral frenzy and aminos eod to make up for the no fish. I had very small skimmate, now im fedding daily plus amino fuel and everything is looking 100% better, but skimmate is not crazy if anything i say average to below. Even when i dosed vinager to compensate for my feeding. Sorry i like fat fish..lol.. actually stoped because my caps started to fade at the tips due to alk burns. I use nsw so alk shouldnt be that high. Now to top it off, i was cleaning the skimmer, and broke the impeler. Droped it and shattered, who would have thought it was ceramic. Thought i would be plastic. So i took this time to order the sicce pump that the sea sc skimmer come with instead of the atman which sukkk.
 
I don't understand. Why were you using vinegar? Or was this a time when you had more fish? If corals are pale, vinegar is not the answer. I had pale corals, then added fish, but added too much, so then I started with the vinegar. Still trying to perfect things.

Not struggling, but seems like my phos fluctuates a lot, while the nitrates have settled very low. I'm changing my GFO every 2-3 weeks. I know to check because I see some small strands of algae popping up. I change the GFO and within a few days, its gone again. Who needs test kits? LOL!
 
Check out this nastiness......3 days of skimmate, and it keeps getting darker. If noticed the bubbles on the cup are more foamy for lack of better word.



 
My tank is new 2 Month old. All parameters are good so far. Is there any benefit to start dosing now, vinegar or vodka? Or is this used only when there is issues? Would it help pull more crud from my skimmer?
 
You can start now if you plan on doing it long term. Personally I would wait until there is a need. I'm running sps dominant with a pretty substantial bioload, that's why I'm doing it. It works! Just gotta make sure you are doing it for the rigt reasons.
 
Thanks rovster. How much vinegar is recommended? Maybe I can start with very low dosage to start? What type of vinegar?
 
I'm currently at 2ml. Been there fora while now. My nitrates are near 0 but not quite. I could increase dose, but things look good so I'm stopping here for now. I have not seen any negative results.

I didn't see the above question about initial dose. There is a reef keeping article that outlines dosing for VODKA. For vinegar just multiply by 8. I am considering adding vodka to the mix in place of some vinegar just to see what happens, but not sure I'll try that for some time. Tank is looking great. Still need to use gfo to maintain phos, but the impact on nitrates has been amazing.
 
Added some vodka to the mix, hit up the wifey's Grey Goose! I had to decrease the dosing because I got a bit of cyano. I'm slowly ramping that back up. I also added the Aquamaxx HOB skimmer and at first, was regretting the decision but after about a month, it's starting to pull out the dark stuff. This is a few days production.....

F924E0DF-0F13-4097-9114-E212683248A2_zpssial1hzv.jpg
 
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