Bigger Refugium instead of skimmer??

[Jared's Reef]

Hey guys,

I am constantly struggling with my skimmer in my waterbox 130.4. I can never get it to stay tuned in and am constantly frustrated with it. I was planning on turning a small section of my skimmer chamber into a refugium, but with how aggravating this skimmer is do you guys think it would be alright to turn the whole skimmer chamber into a fuge. It would pretty much multiply my fuge space by 2.5x. It looks like some folks have had success with this route online. Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[lion king]

Refugiums are the best, I run them on all my tanks, which are high nutrient. I'm able yo maintain close to zero nitrates and phosphates, and only do water changes to refresh the elements. I also do run skimmers though, you figure you have nothing to lose. Do a baseline line water test and pull the skimmer, then test weekly to see how it's doing. You figure you can always add the skimmer back. The larger the refuge the better.

 

[MaxxuM]

I've done it both ways in the past and in combination. Skimmer will always win (if it's working properly). A full refugium (rock, sand/mud, algae, rock, etc) is a pain in the but. I'd ask people about your skimmer and get some tips on how to tune it. Unless it's just isn't very good, then I'd buy another one.

 

[K7BMG]

I agree its hard to help when we dont even know the brand and model of skimmer.

 

[Jared's Reef]

I appreciate the feedback so far. The skimmer is a NYOS quantum. Not sure of the size though since I bought the whole setup used a few months ago. The whole setup was only about 6 months old when bought.

 

[K7BMG]

Well shoot I am not familiar the Nyos.

But what is the issue with it?
To wet, to dry, overflowing, all of the above?
I think a lot of people have skimmer issues but its more to do with water chemistry fluctuations, over the skimmer itself.

I am not talking about Alk, Ca, and Mag.
Skimmers work by removing proteins and other stuff.
As there are many causes for this chemistry to be changing and fluctuating the skimmer will be reactive to the fluctuations.

So it could be what your feeding, or if your livestock is growing rapidly or maybe things like bacteria are dying off.
Is there something that your possibly dosing thats causing an immediate or delayed skimmer reaction that you maybe have missed the pattern?

 

[atomic081]

Im on team Refugium! Ive never gone without a skimmer, but they are so finicky (have had 8 over the last 16 years of reefing). One week I see little to no Skim, so i turn the knob a TINY bit and the next day its overflowing. So I have a 60g refugium now and continue to tweak the skimmers weekly with mixed results.

 

[Jared's Reef]

Thanks for the feedback guys. It ran well for a couple weeks but then started constantly overflowing no matter what I do with the air adjustments. I’ve also tried to raise it up higher in the sump with no luck. Honestly it seemed to run better when I wouldn’t change the filter floss as often and there was a lot of detritus in the sump. I like my sump to be clean though so I keep the floss changed. I’ve had it turned off for a few weeks now so I’ll just watch levels and see what I think.

 

[MaxxuM]

Skimmers are very sensitive to biological chemistry. I did a search on that skimmer on R2R and it does seem to be fickle for some people. Water level seems to be one of the problems. If the filter floss is the clue there could only be two reasons. As it gets dirty the biological chemistry changes enough to make the skimmer overflow when it's removed. The second is the water level could change slightly making the skimmer no longer at an optimal depth.

1. Make a mark on the sump right before changing the floss. If the water level changes then that may be the issue. The solution is to try to keep the level consistent by moving the skimmer to a chamber that doesn't change or change your floss more often.

2. If it's the biology, then you can experiment. You can double stack your floss and alternate the replacement by leaving one in longer. You can also try Pond Matrix in the first sump chamber to increase biological filtration. This may change the chemistry enough to make up for the loss when removing the floss.

What's your nitrates and phosphates running at? This may also have an effect on your skimmer. Do you feed amino's, vitamins, or a special food of some type?

 

[Jared's Reef]

Nitrate usually runs between 5 and 10 and phos usually about 0.05 or so. I ran a quick nitrate test this morning and it was around 5. Didn’t have time to do a phos test since I had to hurry to work but it’s usually pretty stable. I was able to get the skimmer dialed in last night and it was still doing well this morning so hopefully it’ll stay that way. I appreciate everybody’s help. I definitely want to continue running the skimmer in addition to the fuge because I know there are benefits.