BC14 looks better with no skimmer?

[jwilson]

i recently put up a a BC14 with matching BC Protein skimmer. everything in the tank came from my old very established tank, which is; ~14 live rock, 1/2" sand, water, and chaeto in the center chamber instead of BioBalls. livestock is; frogspawn, trumpet, mushroom, feather duster, a small zoa colony, 6-8 hermits, a shrimp, a pajama cardinal, and a couple snails.
i have had it up and running for about 3 months and it has never really looked "healthy"
all the water parameters appear okay, except the nitrates (40+)
i have been doing 5 gallon water changes every Sunday using RO water from my RO unit.
roughly 3 weeks ago i had a diatom outbreak (i am still confused about that one, considering nothing in the tank was new), the water has had a smell, and skimmer wasn't really doing anything. the frogspawn, trumpet, and feather duster hadn't opened in a couple days, the zoas are doing nothing, the shrimp started loosing its color, and i have to clean the glass EVERYDAY due to alge growth.
tonight when i got home i decided to clean the glass, do a small water change and ditch the skimmer. i put a BC cartridge filter in it, and added tap water with "Instant Ocean Marine Conditioner". i figured if everything died, i'd just do a FOWLR and be done with the coral and other inverts, BUT....


this was ~4 hrs ago. the water currently looks 100% better than it ever has, the shrimp has color, the feather duster is peeking out, and the frogspawn is actually starting to open.
i'm confused as to what fixed my issue THAT FAST.
the BC filter cartridge i put in has almost completely changed colors. going to put a new one in it tomorrow and see how it looks after 24 hrs.

is my bioload simply to small for the skimmer to work? (never really did much, no real amount of funk in the cup, and had microbubbles everywhere)
maybe something the charcoal pulled out?
RO filter cartridges dead possibly?
this has me stumped.

 

[crush240]

I too have had this happen. Figure I ditch the skimmer and just do my water changes. Figure why run the thing if I really had no junk in the cup. Yet every month or so I'd turn it on and let is run for a day or two. Junk in there for sure then.

 

[jwilson]

that sounds like a plan. the tank seriously looks 10000x better this morning.

 

[dakotasreef]

Those biocube skimmers are terrible. I can't believe Oceanic still sells those things. I too tried one. Needless to say, it's in the trash.

When you moved your rock and sand, there was sure to be some die off. I would also think by moving the sand and rock to the new tank you were sure to release some organics that had been buried in the rock and sand.

It sounds like when you added the filter cartridge it was able to remove particulate and organics from the water column.

I do a about a 25 percent water change every 8-10 days in my BC 29. I run an Aquaticlife 115 skimmer and use Chemi-pure elite. It seems to keep my water crystal clear and my livestock seem happy and healthy.

Just my. 02¢

 

[Tabasco1]

When was the last time you changed your RO filter? Do you have a TDS meter? If you have another algae bloom you can look in to that as being the cause. But sounds like the PS was causing the major issues.

 

[jwilson]

the filters are due to be replaced, but this issue is only showing in this tank. i use the same water for my fresh water tanks (a 37g and my sons 1.5g Glo-Fish) with no problems in those tanks.

 

[jwilson]

since making the first post i have gone through 3 filter cartridges. the one in it now has almost completely changed colors and i just put it in last night. i did another 4 gallon water change last night, and i'm going to do another one tonight, and change the filter again. that will be close to 70% of the water changed in 2 days. everything but the frogspawn looks 1000x better. it's still not looking so good.