Need Skimmer Advice for SPS

[Brandon McHenry]

Sounds better then mine got! Was still getting great growth and color. Changed skimmers. I think it helped some. Them added 5 snails and it made all the difference for me!! Vertex is a super nice skimmer 250-300.

See for me I can't say that I've got great color. Not sure if that's directly related to the skimmer but I'm sure it could be a contributing factor.

 

[SPSREEFS]

I say your nutrients may be a bit too low

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I have 150 tank like yours and am in the process of up grading my skimmer to a sro 5000 ext from a under sized skimmer

This is what I would do as well. I loved my SRO 5000. You will be able to feed more and make your fish and corals happier. Many ways to run a reef it's all about what you want as your overall goal.

 

[rainmaker]

I hope when I get the new skimmer going today is the plan and my nutrient level drops I'll be able to add more fish

 

[CodyRVA]

I say your nutrients may be a bit too low

Nailed it @SPSREEFS . Implementing a larger skimmer probably won't give you the results you're hoping for. Your nutrients are low, a bigger skimmer is going to drive them even lower and stall your growth and hurt your coloration even more. I ran into this problem by having far too much filtration on my system, overkill to say the least. Nutrients were not detectible what so ever. I resolved this by cutting down my pellet volume, tuning back my skimmer, and removing GFO (this worked for me, i'm not suggesting this for everyone). If you have some algae spots, i'd say you need to tweak the volume of pellets, adjust skimming, play with your flow/power heads, or beef up your clean up crew.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

In regards to my nutrients Ive been trying to achieve coloration similar to Zeovit and products like them when it comes to my SPS. According to those methods of bacterial filtration, my nutrients are right where they should be. I know that my system falls under the ULNS but my corals do seem healthy and they do appreciate the coral food, aminos and vitamins that I give them. That being said, I have a few corals that dont necessarily appreciate the lower nutrients, and some that are still dark and have been in the low nutrient environment for a while.

Overall I know I will always get different answers on opposite ends of the spectrum from different people. It has been that way since I started in this hobby a few years ago and I know its because what works for one person might not work for another. I appreciate all of the help thusfar and I would appreciate if we could continue this discussion so I can really make the best decision for my tank overall.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

What kits are you using to test nitrates and phosphates that give you low readings? Sorry if you already posted it I could have over looked it.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

What kits are you using to test nitrates and phosphates that give you low readings? Sorry if you already posted it I could have over looked it.

salifert for nitrate and hanna ULR for phosphate

 

[SPSREEFS]

I dont use hanna checkers. They are inaccurate. And they are expensive. Do 2 tests in a row. Guarantee they will be different numbers. Mine always where!
I get zero readings for nitrates and 0.03-0.06 with RedSea test kits. And I know my nitrates are not zero! No way! And I know my phsophates are not 0.03 becasue I had quit a bit of algae growing. The algae will mask the test results. Looks low because the algae is consuming it.
I have no experience with Zeovit colors. Too pastel for me. I like deep rich metallic colors. I feel they look way more natural. But everyone has their opinion.
In all fairness to Hanna, maybe I had bad batches of test reagents. Not sure, but I used them for a while and then just ditched them. Too much erratic results....

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Are any of your corals pale? Hard to tell from the picture.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

They had a bad batch of powder go out. I think it was reading random numbers snd high numbers as well. I get consistent numbers every time with the newer batches. I wont test phosphates in low nutrient systems with anything else. Although there my be something that works just as well I just haven't tried it before.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I dont use hanna checkers. They are inaccurate. And they are expensive. Do 2 tests in a row. Guarantee they will be different numbers. Mine always where!
I get zero readings for nitrates and 0.03-0.06 with RedSea test kits. And I know my nitrates are not zero! No way! And I know my phsophates are not 0.03 becasue I had quit a bit of algae growing. The algae will mask the test results. Looks low because the algae is consuming it.
I have no experience with Zeovit colors. Too pastel for me. I like deep rich metallic colors. I feel they look way more natural. But everyone has their opinion.
In all fairness to Hanna, maybe I had bad batches of test reagents. Not sure, but I used them for a while and then just ditched them. Too much erratic results....

I believe that my batch of powder is good because I have done repeat tests and gotten the same result twice in a row. I also have salifert to compare with for the phosphate and it doesnt even change color. It is definitely possible that the little bit of algae that I do have is masking some trace nitrate and phosphate but how much I cannot be sure.

I am not necessarily aiming for pastel colors but the complete coloration of the SPS in their systems is my true goal. I want my corals to have more color than just the tips and I also want my pieces to keep their multi colors and not lose them in my tank.

Are any of your corals pale? Hard to tell from the picture.

Yes. I have a piece or two that appears pale to me, but I also have some that look decent and then some that are still dark and brown. It is a very confusing situation for me. I never know which direction to go in considering the way my corals look.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

The Hanna checker thing I was mentioning for spsreefs. I would say as long as you have algae, especially hair algae you shouldn't have to low of nitrates. And if your dosing Amino's that will help add some too. I just dose a little nitrate when mine reads 0. Maybe share a picture of your pale and brown corals, that will help everyone give a good opinion.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

The Hanna checker thing I was mentioning for spsreefs. I would say as long as you have algae, especially hair algae you shouldn't have to low of nitrates. And if your dosing Amino's that will help add some too. I just dose a little nitrate when mine reads 0. Maybe share a picture of your pale and brown corals, that will help everyone give a good opinion.

The algae is pretty minimal, just a little fuzzy stuff on some dead coral skeleton from my mini tank crash. Unfortunately the best picture I can get of my pale corals still show some color but here we go.
This top one is actually pretty pale but the blue light is really not helping with the picture. The Ponape Birdsnest is also pretty pale with no pink in the tips.

This stag is pretty brown and has been for a long time.

 

[DanConnor]

Keep in mind that as your coral volume increases they will pull more nutrients out of the water. It doesn't look like you have so many fish so I don't know if I would call your tank heavily stocked.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Keep in mind that as your coral volume increases they will pull more nutrients out of the water. It doesn't look like you have so many fish so I don't know if I would call your tank heavily stocked.

So if my tank is not considered heavily stocked then do you feel I need to upgrade my skimmer? Or should I just try replacing the pump? Is my skimmate what it should be for my bioload?

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Maybe try adding a little nitrate, you should see improvements in color if your truely paling corals from uln.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Maybe try adding a little nitrate, you should see improvements in color if your truely paling corals from uln.

What would then happen to those that are already darker colored like the stag posted above?

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Nothing if your have zero nutrients, it would just be readable for a bit and may go back to zero quickly. I am thinking lighting may play a role in your color questions, what lighting are you running again?

 

[Graffiti Spot]

The stage looks like it could be a prostrsts maybe? Not positive but if so this are sometimes hard to color and may take a while to get going depending on where you got it. Do you remember where it came from or what it was labeled?