Nutrient control question......

[Damon]

Okay well that sounds perfect then!!! I might look for a skimz that doesn't have the dc control then cause that doesn't matter to me at all and it's more expensive so I'll check out some other skimz....the one you got is insanely big!! Hahahahaha

Yep, that was my thought also, after i had one with the DC pump.. And the sm201 is the a.c version..

And yep, lol, the 251 is a pretty big skimmer.. I had to squeeze it in the sump.. Lol... I think I've seen one larger in person on someone's tank, but that was a 320 display and i think he had a 100 gallon sump.. Big system.. And the 203(201)is a nice sized skimmer also.. For sure not a nano skimmer by any means..

 

[Gwitness]

Yep, that was my thought also, after i had one with the DC pump.. And the sm201 is the a.c version..

And yep, lol, the 251 is a pretty big skimmer.. I had to squeeze it in the sump.. Lol... I think I've seen one larger in person on someone's tank, but that was a 320 display and i think he had a 100 gallon sump.. Big system.. And the 203(201)is a nice sized skimmer also.. For sure not a nano skimmer by any means..

Alright man i read a lot of reviews on it also and a lot of people like them a lot....just bought it!! Hopefully this helps my issue out and if not at least it's still a big improvement from what I had....

 

[Ro.an]

Your system sounds like mine but mine is smaller, about 80L. I'm using a gen 3 radion and dosing nopox. I have a sps dominant tank and they are always pale, some are okay. My NO3 always from 2.5-5 (Salifert) and PO at 0 (Hanna Ultra Low). I stopped NOPOX few weeks ago, noticed better color. My N pretty much the same but P went from 0 to 0.02.. I guess my SPS are sucking up all the nutrients and when I was using NOPOX, it limits their uptake. It is still early to say but will continue to observe. Oh and FYI I only have 4 fish.

 

[Damon]

Alright man i read a lot of reviews on it also and a lot of people like them a lot....just bought it!! Hopefully this helps my issue out and if not at least it's still a big improvement from what I had....

Yeah, I know I'm one of them.. And cool.. It will make a huge improvement over the one you had..

 

[Gwitness]

Yeah, I know I'm one of them.. And cool.. It will make a huge improvement over the one you had..

Thank you for the advice and input on everything so far....ill be back with an update of my triton water results and update on skimmer and tank Health [emoji3]

 

[WetWhistle]

When I first started in this hobby all that was around for information was what the Dutch, Germans and some Americans were doing pretty much. Books like The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium by Svein A. Fossa, Alf Jacob Nilsen or The Reef Aquarium Volume or by J. Charles Delbeek and Julian Sprung were my go to bible. So I use a more of a natural method for filtration based on my early years of experience and information available.

I use water changes, mangrove's, Caulerpa and Chato packed refugium , skimmer and lots of live rock to keep my tank clean. I set my Refugium up with a portion of a Cryptic Zone that is lower in light to help foster cryptic animals like sponges to filter my water. They are quite effective at removing phosphates and particulate matter from the water. I don't shoot for numbers on what people say they should be for tolerances or ideal numbers. Unless I have an issue I don't even bother testing for nutrients. (Side bar on that point I am experienced in this hobby and I don't recommend this approach of not testing to those that are not experienced) I base mine on how my tank is doing and looking because your reef will tell you what it needs or what is wrong if you know how to listen.

I take a balanced natural approach and use biological, chemical and mechanical filtration to keep my water clean. When I add fish I add first the utility fish (I call them) the ones that work for their keep. Like tangs, blennies, gobies, wrasse etc to naturally take care of algae or pest issues and help with the day to day maintenance. I use mechanical media to take out the larger particles so the biological filtration is not overwhelmed and can do its job. Heavy biological tends to have byproducts so I use some chemical like carbon and protein skimming to keep things balanced but I try and not rely on chemicals to keep my tank and water clean. I like to keep the amount of products I use to only what is needed. I do harvest regularly my Macro algae as a means of nutrient export. I don't feed my coral using products often because I foster the food web and use what is in my reef and what it produces to feed my corals and livestock. The reef already has enough food in it because of my very productive refugium so I don't add food often, I use up the food that is available in the tank already so it keeps my input into my tank low and my export high. I do occasionally add commercially available food as a treat or if I add a new corals I will add some food once the polyps are back out to help top up my new additions energy stores. I find this helps with the accumulation process especially with SPS. I visually look at my tank a few times a day to make sure things are as they should be. If you regularly watch your system besides actually enjoying your reef you will learn what your corals look like throughout the day, if they look different then they should at a particular time then they normally do then you can do a little recon on the tank to see what is up.

When my tank was first set up I carbon dosed with bio pellets then Nitra guard and used GFO but after my refugium was over a year old and fully up and running I took them off as they were not needed. I will use GFO if I am having an issue but only temporary. I keep my hands out as much as possible and I don't tinker unnecessarily. Besides my weekly water changes and changing of my mechanical filter media or top up of my RO water, I do very little to my system weekly as I have little need to. Besides starring at it and enjoying it of course. (Unless something is out of place) Once my lights turn off I have an army of algae eating critters that come out and devour anything that might have grown during the day. They easily take care of any issues.

If you stick to the formula of 'little added maximum removed' this type of system is easy to use with very little effort. As the natural approach fosters the food web I get my tank to work for me not me work for my tank.

If anyone has any question PM me I am glad to help.

 

[brandon429]

Yep id support that. but as the decades go by I think this decade has only one thing to add to those reef masters above, and that's the spot kill independent of -any- tank tinkering whatsoever. In those books I never saw that part, only that excellent nutrients, plant arrangements and crabs and snails and fish will keep algae at bay. Many people felt left out in having done all that was prescribed and then still had algae, so they stripped more, lost more coral in a cycle.

My only addition to any reef advice is do the above, seek natural or even GFO and absolutely do what is shown to work...but the last few decades left out a critical part in algae maintenance and that was the advice that you do -not- leave algae in place as you try to starve it through the water or wait for a grazer to attack it (unless playing a luck game which does work, sometimes)

-universally- any algae grown in the reef is attributed to wastes we cause and never to an actual fine balance where the algae means your system is replicating nature, not that it needs more stripping

what do -do- about very low level algae growth is conjecture and factors IMO to be 89% of the problems caused in this OPs tank. A massive amount of people are going through these challenges we see here since the formal rule books simply didn't allow you to kill algae, they said if you don't remove N or P it will come back, and that's just not the case with the exclusion theory, actually removing it causes it to be under control if you start early.

My addition to the above is, do not alter course for your water around algae retroactively. You set the best water conditions you can get, early on, and you maintain that and simply expect algae and kill algae and the massive chemical goose hunts people go on to rid algae will stop.

Any current book on algae control needs to have a chapter that shows how algae respond to simple attacks on their colonies, changing nothing about the nutrient base, something that's rather opposite of the claims I read in some of those books. lack thereof has cost people thousands of dollars in lost reef tanks due to algae invasions after following all the rules.

If we all had the grazer options/densities the ocean has we'd never need GFO or any other spot kill cheat, but that's not the balance we select in reefing typically. high bioload low grazing and zero algae has been the standard for a long time, seeking it causes many a tank loss. agreed about fish who clean up a bit instead of just couch lazing heh

 

[WetWhistle]

Sometimes spot manual removal is the only way to deal with a problem algae. I worked that into my maintenance because if you leave it be, one or two pieces of algae soon turn into an army. Laziness is algae and pests best friend so to speak.

I fully agree any book now should have a section on how algae responds to removal. That would help control things and help people plat their next move. Especially for those new to the hobby but even experienced people would benefit from that. Most books do only focus on waste management as a control but sometimes organics are not the root cause of an outbreak.

For fish people get caught up in fish that look beautiful and sometime forget do these add to my bio load and look pretty only or do they help?!?

 

[Gwitness]

Yeah, I know I'm one of them.. And cool.. It will make a huge improvement over the one you had..

I know you said to just let tank be right now but this stuff my sand is just getting worse and worse?? Should I just let it be until my new skimmer gets here and just keep dosing vinegar Til then??

 

[Damon]

I know you said to just let tank be right now but this stuff my sand is just getting worse and worse?? Should I just let it be until my new skimmer gets here and just keep dosing vinegar Til then??

I would.. The reason I say that is because you don't want to get even more into the water column.. That's what i would do.. When is your skimmer scheduled to arrive?

That's one of the annoying things about tanks, sometimes, you have to wait it out. I know a lot of times, i made things worse by not just letting things settle in. It's not the fastest way to get rid of it of course, but it's honestly the best way.. That's my opinion(onion).. Lol...

 

[Gwitness]

I would.. The reason I say that is because you don't want to get even more into the water column.. That's what i would do.. When is your skimmer scheduled to arrive?

That's one of the annoying things about tanks, sometimes, you have to wait it out. I know a lot of times, i made things worse by not just letting things settle in. It's not the fastest way to get rid of it of course, but it's honestly the best way.. That's my opinion(onion).. Lol...

Lol okay I'm gonna follow you on this and just let it be still and dose the vinegar....I got it 2 night delivery so it will either come in tomorrow or Monday....

 

[Gwitness]

I would.. The reason I say that is because you don't want to get even more into the water column.. That's what i would do.. When is your skimmer scheduled to arrive?

That's one of the annoying things about tanks, sometimes, you have to wait it out. I know a lot of times, i made things worse by not just letting things settle in. It's not the fastest way to get rid of it of course, but it's honestly the best way.. That's my opinion(onion).. Lol...

I forgot to say I have 148lbs of live rock on my 165 gallon tank....do you think I will need more regardless of my new skimmer or will that be fine with my new skimmer?

 

[Damon]

I forgot to say I have 148lbs of live rock on my 165 gallon tank....do you think I will need more regardless of my new skimmer or will that be fine with my new skimmer?

I'm still of the old school thought that the more rock the better. However, with this system, I am trying less.. I have, I think upon last calculation about 155lbs in my 180. I would have to go back and check my logs, now that i think about it. I may have close to 200. I cannot fully remember, because i literally stuffed my old system full of rock, and this time, I didn't want to do that. So i didn't purchase any more when i set up this tank (well, upgraded).

But I would say, established rock is much better than brand new live rock.. You know what is been through and how it's been processed in your system.. I'm very reluctant to add more, simply because i don't know what might be in it..

 

[Gwitness]

I'm still of the old school thought that the more rock the better. However, with this system, I am trying less.. I have, I think upon last calculation about 155lbs in my 180. I would have to go back and check my logs, now that i think about it. I may have close to 200. I cannot fully remember, because i literally stuffed my old system full of rock, and this time, I didn't want to do that. So i didn't purchase any more when i set up this tank (well, upgraded).

But I would say, established rock is much better than brand new live rock.. You know what is been through and how it's been processed in your system.. I'm very reluctant to add more, simply because i don't know what might be in it..

Yeah your probably right about being worried about adding new rock....unless I knew exactly where it came from....my tank is so shallow that I'd have to put it in my sump if I did add any more without the tank looking bad, but hopefully with this new skimmer I won't need to add any more rock!

 

[Gwitness]

I'm still of the old school thought that the more rock the better. However, with this system, I am trying less.. I have, I think upon last calculation about 155lbs in my 180. I would have to go back and check my logs, now that i think about it. I may have close to 200. I cannot fully remember, because i literally stuffed my old system full of rock, and this time, I didn't want to do that. So i didn't purchase any more when i set up this tank (well, upgraded).

But I would say, established rock is much better than brand new live rock.. You know what is been through and how it's been processed in your system.. I'm very reluctant to add more, simply because i don't know what might be in it..

Got the skimmer hooked up today!!!! It is dead silent man!!! I have a question though......when you ran your 201 skimZ how did you know how much air to let in or not on the air intake screw??

 

[Gwitness]

And is there a way to get the dang collection cup on tight enough where it doesn't slowly leak out of the bottom of the cup?? Haha I tried to turn it pretty tight but I don't want to do it too tight and break it! That would be my luxk

 

[Gwitness]

I added on things like GFO and growing macroalgae in refugia and carbon dosing over the years because I didn't find that the combination of just skimming and water changes worked well enough to satisfy me.

Randy what do you think??!!

 

[Damon]

Got the skimmer hooked up today!!!! It is dead silent man!!! I have a question though......when you ran your 201 skimZ how did you know how much air to let in or not on the air intake screw??

Well, that's the thing.. On that one, I set it so that 4 threads on the screw was still showing. That was the beginning adjustment for me..

 

[Gwitness]

Well, that's the thing.. On that one, I set it so that 4 threads on the screw was still showing. That was the beginning adjustment for me..

Okay, but I can't hurt anything by having a lot of air go in right?? Also, the water level one with the valve on it.....what is the point of it?? Just to raise and lower the water level in the skimmer right?

 

[Damon]

And is there a way to get the dang collection cup on tight enough where it doesn't slowly leak out of the bottom of the cup?? Haha I tried to turn it pretty tight but I don't want to do it too tight and break it! That would be my luxk

At first is going to be goofy like that. It is indeed. The first few times i took mine off and on, it was like that. But basically with water on the o ring, try to tighten it a little and then back off.. If you do that enough times, you will get it tight enough to where it will not leak. Then, the next time you empty it, it will be easier.. It took mine a few times.

Or, you could just by some silicon lubricant and just call it a day.. Lol

And is there a way to get the dang collection cup on tight enough where it doesn't slowly leak out of the bottom of the cup?? Haha I tried to turn it pretty tight but I don't want to do it too tight and break it! That would be my luxk

At first is going to be goofy like that. It is indeed