upgrade skimmer or buy more live rock

[bolton reefer 1]

hi my nitrate levels are off the scale iv had good advive from markd40 i thank him and im following that advice
1/reducing fish levels
2/up grading skimmer
3/ adding more live rock
4/ increasing water changes
my question is with only about Ã"šÃ‚£300 pounds to spend i was going to buy a deltec ap600 skimmer to replace my prizm [which i know are poor]for my 100 gln reef iv got about 20 lbs of live rock in there now Ã"šÃ‚£300 would add another 60 lbs which should i buy

 

[RandyP]

first thing is to do more water changes to reduce your nitrates, since I have no idea about your fish load I cant comment on that then I would upgrade the skimmer and then finally add more rock

 

[bolton reefer 1]

yes iv increased waterchanges from 5 glns a week to 10 fish stock was very high 14 fish for 18 months [mainly small 2-3inches 1 large tang] reduced last month to 10 fish reducing this weekend down to four but im not happy i like seeing plenty of fish im getting skimmer asap thanks for reply

 

[bolton reefer 1]

just noticed your useing the skimmer i thinking of getting how do you rate it

 

[bigbenji]

IMO the prizm on a 100g reef is extremely insufficient. You could save some money by upgrading to an ASM or Octopus, and still have some left over to buy more live rock. The deltec's are great, but too pricey for me.

I would buy a cheaper skimmer and more live rock. Some people try for 1 pound / gallon of live rock, so you're really short there too.

 

[phenom5]

i would see if you can get some good quality base rock, and add that to your tank. reefer rocks has some really nice stuff and it's pretty cheap (when compared to LR). i'm not sure what their policy is about shipping it across the pond, and that may make it very costly. but IMO, i'd find some good quality base rock, let that get seeded and turn into live rock AND get a better skimmer. if you can find a good LFS over there they may have base rock, several of the LFS near me have base rock that they use to seed and make live rock, but you can buy the base for roughly a dollar a pound...not sure how that converts. a pound a pound maybe? also, del-tec make great skimmers, but if cost is an issue, you can find a skimmer that will get the job done that doesn't cost quite as much. maybe an ASM skimmer.

HTH :thumbsup:
cheers :beer:

 

[sjm817]

Better skimmer over more LR. The AP600 is a great skimmer.

 

[HBtank]

I would get a CSS 220 and more live rock.

 

[bolton reefer 1]

thanks for that you are blessed in the usa with better choice/quality of skimmers but would thay run on 240vlts english electric ? would it make any sense adding another budget skimmer and running both units or does it not work like that