High Tide Aquatics

Over skimming

Gomer

Gomer

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I am pretty sure I am "overskimming" my tank. I have a very trivial fish/invert bio load and a ton of frags. The typical slow growth/"pale" growth has been consistent for a long long while (and zoas which are the roaches of the coral world) have shown long standing signs of a low nutrient tank.

Right now I am running an HOB remora (the middle size one) on a 40g. I'm thinking of setting it up on a timer. Would I be better of running it anti or sync to my lighting schedule? (I already feed my tank a fair bit, for those who may suggest to just feed more to increase the DOC etc)
 
is there such a thing as overskimming? worst case you will just have to re-supplement what you take out. best case is u remove all the crap from the water and only have to add supplements back.
 
Tony, what about reducing the turnover rate to your skimmer? Not sure the best way to do that off hand, just a thought....hth
 
[quote author=LeviT link=topic=6544.msg84017#msg84017 date=1235512933]
Tony, what about reducing the turnover rate to your skimmer? Not sure the best way to do that off hand, just a thought....hth
[/quote] maybe a flow valve? or just changing to a slower pump maybe? i feed my corals coral frenzy and combovital (mix of blackpowder and sprectravital). maybe you should look into some of that as well. but turn off your filters (or remove the filter pads) when you feed. and feed 2 hours before lights out. should see some growth
 
I feed and skim heavy but I do turn the skimmer off for about 15 minutes each time I feed along with all my PH's. Could keep your skimmer from taking out stuff you want your corals eating.
 
oh, ill leave the skimmer working, i just wont let it draw in air so there is still circulation. i leave my PHs running so that all the food can reach all over.
 
[quote author=reefermadness link=topic=6544.msg84030#msg84030 date=1235514300]
oh, ill leave the skimmer working, i just wont let it draw in air so there is still circulation. i leave my PHs running so that all the food can reach all over.
[/quote]

Do you have a valve on the air intake of your skimmer that you close off everytime you feed? I have too much flow in my tank to leave the PH's on when I feed I think... at least for the LPS. They seem to be able to eat much better when the food is not blowing past them super fast.... especially for the corals in the group that are target fed. I have a standby mode on my controller that I hit that stops the PH's and Skimmer automatically and restarts everything after 15 minutes... There's still water movement from the circulation pump that distributes food nicely... it just creates an environment where it's not whipping around like crazy.... Certainly not the only way but it is working well for me.
 
well, i kinda modded my current PS because it needed a 2000gph pump to drive it, and im not gonna buy that for a 75 gallon tank. so i push air in with an air pump into where the water is injected. so ill just unplug the airline. (despite how it sounds, it performs 100x better than my old P.O.S. marineland skimmer and it adds a little over 5 gallons of water to the water volume). but before i would just put the air line from the venturi into the tank so it drew in water through the venturi instead of air. it is a good idea to let it "rain" onto your corals, but i always noticed some of my more shy corals (light sensitive) wouldnt get the feed because they were under arches. ya, not the best to blow all the food around viciously, but a little movement is good, as it does help simulate nature. in the wild, food doesnt just come falling down from the sky. ill slow the flow of the powerheads by turnin a few off and leaving the slower flow ones to still have circulation.15 minutes doesnt seem long enough. after its "rained" down on my corals ill turn my flow back on, but wont put back in the mechanical or chemical filters for 2-3 hours, to maximize absorption of the food. and of course so i dont clog up the filters with GOOD FOOD
 
I feed my tank daily. I used to use the RN mix but I ran out and need to get more. Right now it is cyclopeze and periodic mysis for LPS target feeding. I was going to use the pellets (forget the brand) but got the medium size instead of the small on accident. The bioload is really small: 2 fish (now 1 since my 6-line decided to make a jump a couple days ago) and a couple hermits and a 1/2 dozen snails.

I guess I'll try to feed in the morning and night. lets hope aiptasia doesn't get too out of control (hard to zap the aiptasia on the rock under the eggcrate shelf.
 
for some of my coral ill just feed them the sprectrum pellets by hand. the mini ones of course. they love it... i will do my sprinkling 2 or so hours before lights out so that the polyps that open at night have a chance at food as well
 
I was having issues like that with my tank, now I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum except instead of brown corals mine have color and are growing like weeds (as usual).

The things that fixed the issue were to cut back on lighting intensity, feed more and up the flow. I do have a little hair algae as a result and yes, a couple of Aiptasia, but nothing to be concerned about.
 
I switched from the 250 MH to the 4x39 T5 very recently. Due to the spread, some areas will have more light than before but should be a lot less peaky. I guess I should see how that plays out over a couple months
 
I started feeding our tank daily and have seen better color out of some browned pieces...but then again i also run a skimmer rated alot higher than our tank volume, so im pretty sure im skimming out a good portion of it..Like Jeremy, ive gotten a couple patches of HA, but the response from the corals are worth the occational patch here and there...im also running a denitrator and just started some carbon dosing to keep NO3 at a minimal. Once levels hit 10ppm i got a little freaked out, so ive been trying to find an equilibrium shoting for about 5....any lower and the macro in the fuge begins to die off and i run into PO4 probs..
 
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