Tank too clean ?

[turbo21]

Ok here is what i have going on.

I had a 90 oceanic cube setup with a 45 gal sump. old southdown playsand for my sandbed, and a whole ton of live rock. i have a octo 200 skimmer.

when i had the 90 running the skimmer would pull out a good bit of dark nasty skimmate everyday, and i was fighting nitrates in the 20 range.

i moved everything about 6 weeks ago to a 125. the only changes were to ditch my old sand and keep the aragonite that came with the tank, and the sump is a little smaller

my nitrates are at 0 and my phos is at .25. my skimmer is not producing barely any skimmate and the stuff it does make is a funky green color not the normal tea colored stinky stuff

the are not may corals in the tank.
fish list--singapore angel
clown tang
clown goby
sandsifter goby
sixline wrasse
2 chromis
maroon clown
firefish


could it be my old sandbed was the huge nitrate sink and replacing the sand removed all of my old problems?

what do you think?

 

[Enyo]

Hard to tell, I would say that the system change disrupted your skimmer, but 6 weeks and still nothing is pretty long. All I can think of is that, and maybe your drain goes through a filter sock now? That could prefilter a lot of the nasty your skimmer was removing before.

At the last meeting, Adam talked about how special grade aragonite "kitty litter" sand can catch and trap a lot of detritus that needs to get to the sump. I use it personally but every tank is different.

 

[Stray32]

I think its probably a combination of things:

1. Larger capacity tank means the detritus doesn't saturate the water column as quickly, and therefore is more efficiently cleaned with the skimmer, rock, and sand.
2. The sand you were using before was probably capturing a fair amount of detritus, and if it was stirred up regularly, your nitrates would remain high.
3. Try adjusting the flow through your skimmer or the level of the skimmate cup (if its an option). Skimmate can be wet and light brown or sticky and dark brown depending on how much flows goes through your skimmer.

I don't think you have anything to worry about necessarily. It's a new system and it will take some time to settle, even longer than 6 weeks in my opinion.

 

[turbo21]

jared


i was thinking along the same lines i have a gate valve on my skimmer and already have it adjusted high. it is like there is nothing to pull out.
the tank must be doing okay because the rainbow shroom split for me. not just in half but into 3 shrooms and they are open and looking good. both the caps are also still looking good, so keeping my fingers crossed
bob

 

[acer]

sounds like a nice problem to have

 

[turbo21]

sounds like a nice problem to have

i am just so used to checking the skimmer daily on all of my old tanks. it just threw me off not really seeing any skimmate

bob