New Skimmer Help!

BrntWaffles · Jun 1, 2013

I've been battling a nuisance algae outbreak for sometime now. Mostly hair and some caulerpa that hitchhiked in my tank. I'm beginning to think I shouldn't of bought a budget skimmer :squigglemouth:. My current setup is a 75g DT with a 29g sump. It's been running for about 8 months now. Nitrate and Phosphate both test 0. I do 10% water changes weekly but the algae still slowly grows. My current skimmer is an aquatraders Odyssea PS160 Protein Skimmer :frown:. I've convinced myself that is the root of my problem. I'm not getting as much skim-mate as I believe I should be, especially when I compare to my friends tank that runs a reef octopus diablo xs160. Anyways I have 3 skimmers i'm looking into and I can't decide, so I figured i'd start a poll for help!

kateater · Jun 1, 2013

What type of lighting? How long do you run your lights? How old are Lamp? How's bioload? Tap water or RODI? Still a fairly young tank all tanks go thru ugly stage. IMO

mike007 · Jun 1, 2013

Most algae problems are caused by excess nutrients{overfeeding} or phosphates.

Mike J. · Jun 1, 2013

I bought this skimmer for 264.71. Everywhere else it's 399.00. I've got it on a 75 gal. with 32 gal. sump. Am very happy with it and it is VERY quiet.Bubble-magus Hero 180 Protein Skimmer Aquarium Skimmers

BrntWaffles · Jun 1, 2013

The substrate is new with the tank. The rocks/water moved from a 2 year old 29g system I had at the time, I had 55# of live rock in my old system that migrated to my 75g. Plus some maybe another 15# of rock I kept from the new tank. The tank was up and running as a FOWLR when I purchased it. I have new LED lighting that I purchased after setting up the tank. I use two of the reef breeders 16" controllable fixtures. Current lighting schedule on at 9am at 10% power, it then ramps up to 50% by noon and holds until 3pm then ramps back till 9pm. Moonlight are on 2 hours before and after. I only top-off with RODI from LFS. As for my bio-load, 1 Ocellaris clown, 1 blenny, 1 sixline wrasse, 3 scissortail dartfish. Cleanup crew consists of 5 trochus snails, 1 sea hare, 2 hermits, 2 nassarius snails, and a cleaner shrimp.

BrntWaffles · Jun 1, 2013

mike007 said:
Most algae problems are caused by excess nutrients{overfeeding} or phosphates.

I feed Rod's food complete every other day. Roughly a dime size chunk. Should I be rinsing the food? I just thaw with tank water and dump enough in for every fish to get a couple bites.

KoleTang · Jun 1, 2013

I hear great things about the omega. The wine glass design really changes things.

I just picked up a SRO POV 1 Skimmer from fragtastic reef (A LFS near me that also sells online). The owner (Garret) should be able to help you choose if you give him a call or email. He helped me decide.

BTW, aquatraders is horrible.

Mike J. · Jun 1, 2013

Do you have a TDS meter to check that water you're getting from the LFS? They're rather inexpensive. Or have them show you a meter reading. (Just saying) Also might want to consider a GFO/carbon reactor. So you buy 10 gallons a week, plus top off, that 15 gallons a week.?

BrntWaffles · Jun 1, 2013

Also I forgot on my bioload list, I have 22 frags. I didn't run out and buy them all... half were in my old tank when I upgraded and the rest came from a friend. He bought a setup that was up and running. He didn't want most of the corals so I took em. They are all growing, some more than others. Mostly LPS with some SPS.

BrntWaffles · Jun 1, 2013

Mike J. said:
Do you have a TDS meter to check that water you're getting from the LFS? They're rather inexpensive. Or have them show you a meter reading. (Just saying) Also might want to consider a GFO/carbon reactor. So you buy 10 gallons a week, plus top off, that 15 gallons a week.?

Yep! 15 gallons. Just picked up my weekly water today :bigsmile:. I'll have to check into the TDS meter. My buddy has one, i'll have to see if I can borrow it. The GFO is the second option I was thinking about. Could be a cheaper just as viable route.

bullet reef · Jun 9, 2013

You should definitely rinse your frozen food and drain and discard the water by straining the food with a mysis net. Liquid in frozen food is loaded with phosphates.

Oddysea is known for sub-par equipment. I have never known anyone who had one of their skimmers though. I am on tapatalk and can't see your poll but I have had many types of skimmers and I can't sing the praises of CAD Lights skimmers enough! They have two different skimmers that would work well with your tank, the TIA-1150 or the Pipe-less skimmer with an amazingly tiny footprint of only 4.75 x 4.75" (if you're limited on sump space) and rated up to 100g! They're VERY efficient in energy and performance, and best of all, the price is very competitive and less than other skimmers that are comparable. If you haven't looked at CAD Lights skimmers, I highly recommend doing so!

I didn't see where you answered the question of how old your bulbs are... bulbs change spectrum when they get old (6 months +) and the altered spectrum can help facilitate the growth of nuisance algae.

Something else that can really help with nuisance algae is bumping up your magnesium to around 1800. You can raise it by about 100ppm per day.

You can but brand new handheld tds meters for around $25 and if you're gonna be purchasing your water, I would highly recommend having one of your own so you can take it with you every time to test before you buy. You just can't trust that am lfs is gonna always change their rodi filters on time and sell you 0 tds water.
Hope this helps