High Tide Aquatics

Need larger skimmer

Wanderlust21

Wanderlust21

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Hey y'all. Going through a phos and nitrate spike. Need a bigger Skimmer. I NEED recommendations. Trying to stay below $1000, and I like automation (thinking Red Sea Reefer DC 900 as I already have the Reef Mat 1200). Recently added a couple tangs as well as some corals. Been running for around 9 months or so. I've got a 215.5 Waterbox Infinia Reef. Currently have 8 tangs, a cardinal, two clowns, a 10" snowflake, a purple tilefish, an algae blenny, a cleaner shrimp, CUC, corals, anemone... The Skimmer I have is a Octo 150-S with the variable speed controller. I've come to realize my skimmer is just not adequate. Did a 50g water change and now nitrates are 23 (down from 32.6 last week) and Phos .46 (down from .52 last week). Will be installing a 57w UV Aqua sterilizer also.

Thank you!!
 
System size?
I run a reef octopus 5000sss something on what will become close to a 500 gallon system
I’ll assume that I feed more liberally than you.
I recommend doing the water changes more on the regular

And I run the same skimmer as Thomas @Darkxerox on a 300+ system

Water changes are your best friend
Large and often
 
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Wanderlust21 said:
220g. 180gD and 40gS
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Is this the gross or the net water volume (glass subtracted)?

DELTEC all the way. I have the Reef Octopus Elite 200 INT (for an estimated <150 gallon net, 150 gallon + 57 gallon sump), but one of the next things I would like to do is to swap the skimmer with a DELTEC 1000 or 1500. They barely or ever go on sale though.

For nutrient management with both higher nitrate and phosphate, I would continue to do water changes, and use Tropic Marin Elimi NP for that.

Also, maybe your skimmer does not work at the highest effciency. How do you know it is not adequate?
 
Agree bigger skimmer isn’t the answer here unless you just wanna blow some money on new equipment, which I can relate to.

If you are really worried about nutrients (and shouldn’t be - I just went from higher than you to lower than you and haven’t seen any real change) just do some water changes and move on with your life.
 
divewsharks said:
What issues are you running into in the tank that has you concerned with the readings?
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Hair algae, elevated nitrates, and phosphates, agitated fish…

IMG_1163.jpeg
 
derek_SR said:
Agree bigger skimmer isn’t the answer here unless you just wanna blow some money on new equipment, which I can relate to.

If you are really worried about nutrients (and shouldn’t be - I just went from higher than you to lower than you and haven’t seen any real change) just do some water changes and move on with your life.
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I’m doing three water changes over about seven days, 50g each. I figure a bigger skimmer is appropriate because of the type and amount of fish that I have. The skimmer I have came out of a 90 gallon tank from a previous owner. And I do like the newest best equipment lol
 
Alexander1312 said:
Is this the gross or the net water volume (glass subtracted)?

DELTEC all the way. I have the Reef Octopus Elite 200 INT (for an estimated <150 gallon net, 150 gallon + 57 gallon sump), but one of the next things I would like to do is to swap the skimmer with a DELTEC 1000 or 1500. They barely or ever go on sale though.

For nutrient management with both higher nitrate and phosphate, I would continue to do water changes, and use Tropic Marin Elimi NP for that.

Also, maybe your skimmer does not work at the highest effciency. How do you know it is not adequate?
Click to expand...
I never did a water volume calculation when I added the rock work so I am not sure the actual net volume. But I figure if I size for 200 gallons then I should be ok.
 
psidriven said:
From your picture, your issue is that you do not have enough corals. More corals will uptake more nutrients., negating need for bigger skimmer.

I’m part of the buy more corals enabler club.
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I like the way you think lol. And believe it or not, the wife would be much more on board with more corals.
I’m happy to take suggestions on what corals would be best for my set up. I also need to rent a Par meter.
 
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More clean up crew snails, urchins, and hermits could help as well. I see 1 urchin, a few snails. Not sure how many are in there from the picuture by any means.

Manually remove longer gha with enough cuc they should be able to maintain what you have. They just wont eat the crazy long gha.
 
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