Please be advised, do not concern yourself too much with the out put of
the skimmer as long as you not just pulling water, but keep an eye on
the animals - corals, coralline algae and the higher algae. I believe
you can have too clean a tank for some animals and since I am new (3
yrs) to the salt side of fish keeping the same holds true on the
freshwater side (20 yrs). I think the skimmer is a necessary tool of
the trade but use as a broom to clean when necessary. Mine needs it all
the time. The 90 gal needs both the 5 and 3 inch going all the time.
Kris (the best half) has a cow fish (3yrs in house) now 8" in length.
But, we can not keep chainsaw (lawnmower) blennies in the tank or any
blennies because they chase her/him (Daisy). I think the blennies think
the spots on the fish are algae and they chase her. Still the coralline
and other nice algae are looking great and the gunk from this tank in
both skimmers is real bad. The lack of coralline algae in your tank
could be more on the lines of the lack of good calcium or an imbalance
of buffers which I agree skimmers can pull but can be replenished by
additives. I use this sites additives - vital gold and KSM - both do
really good especially for open brains and LPS's. Also, NO two tanks are
the same.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.krispcritters.com
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Joe Stiene
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2001 4:44 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: CHANGE AIRSTONES IN RON'S SKIMMER
Jerry
You are the first one to agree with me that seems to have found that the
skimmer can overskim. The reason I asked you what how your skimmer is
set
is because my corals were not growing and neither was corraline algae.
The
tank looked/looks stale. I was pulling out about 1 collection cup full
of
brown water every day. I think I may have skimmed all the essential
elements out of the water. I went and view a number of folks with reef
tanks and say nobody was pulling any water, so heavy think gunk. So I
just
did a 75% water change and slowed the skimmer down to the point where
there
are just bubbles in the riser tube that slowly dump into the collection
cup.
My goal is to have the skimmer fill up about 1/2 -1" of heavy gunk in
the
collection cup over a period of about a week. Does this sound right??
Joe
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Jerry Porter
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 10:17 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: CHANGE AIRSTONES IN RON'S SKIMMER
These Skimmers are great - sometimes too great. I have a 220 gal with a
75 gal sump in the basement below the tank. Also have a 90 gal with a
35 gal sump in the basement. I'm lucky. I run both the 5" and 4"
skimmer. It seems that each pulls different stuff. Running both for
awhile on the 220 I found some corals were not growing as they should so
I now let the litter one run but no real skimming. The larger one runs
24/7 and only to the point were very dark gunk is skimmed. You can
learn this part by watching the animals - I feed a lot 3 times a day and
have many animals in the tanks. By watching the animals and the skimmers
you should pick up a feel of how to tune the skimmers. I have very
little algae this I think is the key in ensuring the skimmers is picking
up after the ozone and uv. I have No wanted crabs (stabbed one last
night) or snails. The only real problem I currently have is finding
people in Alaska who could use some of the overgrowth of Leathers,
Colts, and waving hand Xina. If you are only pulling light brown out
there are one of two thins you can do. If you need to deep clean -
Unwanted algae you can turn the amount of flow coming out of the water
supply going into the skimmer and turn up the amount of air going into
the skimmer more bubbles less water - deep clean. If all elements are
good adjust for less air into the skimmer to the point where very little
goes into the cup. When pollutants build up the skimmer will pull it
out of the water. In the last case make sure your air stone are
functioning well.
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