Protein Skimmer & Reverse osmosis

Serendipity · Mar 22, 2020

Ok so i have a 55 Gallon tank that I've been learning about reef tanks and to no avail am i learning any of this the easy way and i keep running into issues at every turn i got saltwater fish and coral just to find out the lighting they sold me isn't good enough for saltwater reef even tho it was very expensive both light were at 100 each and do me no good really there keeping the coral rocks alive but that's about there full extent and as long as i continue to only use the lights in blue and 10% red for what i was told no longer than 2 hours and day and to make sure the light go off for at leis 6 hours at night now i have bought a protein Skimmer as well as a Aqua-Tech pump and the reverse Osmosis machine that takes roughly 3 hours to pump 5 gallons of water.
And now the Xyclone Protein Skimmer i hung it on the back cause my tank is too small for the machine to go into my tank and the cloudiness of the tank is starting to drive me nuts i can't see half of the tank that this machine is on and I've read the instructions and once again to no avail am i finding a solution for this issue can someone anyone please Read this Frusterated mess and Try and help me out...

Steelheader09 · Mar 22, 2020

Sorry about the lights. Lighting is very expensive typically. What do you have for coral? What is the exact light you have? What do you have for an RO unit. They are typically pretty slow to make water, it depends a lot on how high the TDS is in your source water, and what the pressure is going in, as well as the gph rating on the RO membrane. The xyclone appears to be made for hang on back. What is the cloudiness caused by? Is it bubbles escaping back into the tank from the skimmer? Also, how long has the tank been set up?

Serendipity · Mar 23, 2020

Wow where to start

Lighting is Fluval Aquasky 3000 - 25000k Lighting
Skimmer Xyclone Protein Skimmer is a hang on back 100 gallon Skimmer don't really see anyting more on the box.

And the ro unit is a 100 gallon 4 stage Reverse osmosis di unit made by Aquatic unit

the tank has been set up now for about 6 months or so
Coral i cant remember the name of it i had a Bubble coral and gave it away even tho it was super expensive to buy i was happy to give it to a pet store that put it on display for all to see him than for the little guy to set in my tank and pass away from not the proper food or lighting for the little guy to survive the other 2 one is growing well in the tank and the second is alive but not expanding especially since i was sold crabs and those little critters seam to enjoy eating the plants. other than the protein skimmer and the ro unit and lighting is there any other machines that i'm missing to complete this setup for this coral to grow happily and healthy???

Serendipity · Mar 23, 2020

Also i did a 30 Gallon water change today actually been changing the water all day should have filled up 4 buckets with water before i stared in on this

Steelheader09 · Mar 23, 2020

Ah yes, the Aquaskys are probably ok for mushrooms and zoas, but too low of par for much else.
If you water is really cold going into the RO unit, that will slow it down.
The filters you show in the last picture, what do they go in? Lastly, what do you have for a heater?
Sorry for so many questions, just trying to get an idea of the set up. Could you take a few pictures of the entire tank?

piranhaman00 · Mar 23, 2020

Did someone tell you the aqua sky is good enough for coral? I would try to return it to them if that happened. It says right on the package not for saltwater reefs.

What psi is the gauge reading when you are making water?

homer1475 · Mar 23, 2020

Are you only getting 5PSI into the RO/DI unit? If so you really need a booster pump to bring that PSI up to 70PSI. This is why your unit takes so long to make water.

watdachuck · Mar 23, 2020

piranhaman00 said:
What psi is the gauge reading when you are making water?

I was just going to ask the same question. There are many threads on the ideal or correct PSI for RODI units such as https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-much-water-pressure-should-a-rodi-unit-have.142382/.

I always thought 40-50 PSI was a minimum but cannot confirm this is correct. Have you tested the TDS of the water exiting your unit to confirm it is operating as intended?

homer1475 · Mar 23, 2020

watdachuck said:
I always thought 40-50 PSI was a minimum but cannot confirm this is correct. Have you tested the TDS of the water exiting your unit to confirm it is operating as intended?

BRS reccomends 50 to 75 psi, with 65psi being the sweet spot for their units. As does @SpectraPureInc .

Serendipity · Mar 23, 2020

The heater I don't remember what it is I just remember that it's enough to keep a 100 gallon tank heated I keep the tank dead on 77 degrees farenheit and as you guys can see its 9:40 am here and I didn't go to bed till after 3 am and the tank is still not finished I'll send more pictures in a couple of hours after the tank is finished being filled up and the psi gauge on the rodi is only at 15 I didn't realize that I needed to hook it up straight to the main I was told that the way I was planning on using the unit I bought that I was going to run it off another filtration system giving the system double the water filtration so that way between the two of them there would literally be nothing in the water but water. And lights yes I was told they were for reef tank and I called the place I bought them and the only thing the manager said is are the lights open I said yes and she was like once the lights are taken out of the box we no longer return the lights

oh the gauge on the ro unit reads 40 psi.

Serendipity · Mar 23, 2020

Ok after fully filling up the aquarium with water this is the total output of the skimmer most of the water is now cloudy and I can't really see anything

watdachuck · Mar 23, 2020

Sorry if I missed it, how long has the tank been running?

It looks like you used crushed coral for the sand bed, did you rinse it first?

It almost looks like air bubbles in the photo, is something spitting out large amount of air?

datahog · Mar 23, 2020

Serendipity said:
Ok so i have a 55 Gallon tank that I've been learning about reef tanks and to no avail am i learning any of this the easy way and i keep running into issues at every turn i got saltwater fish and coral just to find out the lighting they sold me isn't good enough for saltwater reef even tho it was very expensive both light were at 100 each and do me no good really there keeping the coral rocks alive but that's about there full extent and as long as i continue to only use the lights in blue and 10% red for what i was told no longer than 2 hours and day and to make sure the light go off for at leis 6 hours at night now i have bought a protein Skimmer as well as a Aqua-Tech pump and the reverse Osmosis machine that takes roughly 3 hours to pump 5 gallons of water.
And now the Xyclone Protein Skimmer i hung it on the back cause my tank is too small for the machine to go into my tank and the cloudiness of the tank is starting to drive me nuts i can't see half of the tank that this machine is on and I've read the instructions and once again to no avail am i finding a solution for this issue can someone anyone please Read this Frusterated mess and Try and help me out...

Ok have that same skimmer,,,awesome skimmer but you are right the directions are junk... I would run a long air line from skimmer to 1 gallon empty plastic milk jug...or let it go right back into tank,,,while it is breaking in...mine took 2 weeks of running before film built up so it would run smoothly...also what they don't tell you is to make sure you pull the 2 discharge tubes out and put them back in so they don't block discharge flow..the ends with the black sponge..if there all the way up into pipe they block flow on the elbow above... Once it breaks in the micro bubbles will die down...when it is running you only want the bubbles going half way up the neck of collector...sounds like you are not far off from it working correctly...post if you have more issues...

Serendipity · Mar 23, 2020

watdachuck said:
Sorry if I missed it, how long has the tank been running?

It looks like you used crushed coral for the sand bed, did you rinse it first?

It almost looks like air bubbles in the photo, is something spitting out large amount of air?

ok and yes the bed is crushed coral and yes i rinsed it not sure id i did it right??? i didn't know i needed to rinse it till i bought the second bag sad i know but i just got all of it and did what the directions on the bad told me step on if it's a new tank put sand in bottom of the tank and than when i got to the steps for a used tank for the second bag did i see anything about rinsing it off first

yes there is a lot of air in this tank and it all started with the Skimmer but now thanks to the feller above i might have a fix for that situation
Thanks a Million for the Help and Anymore information with the Crushed Coral would be Great

Serendipity · Mar 23, 2020

Oh the Tank has been running About 6 months

Serendipity · Mar 23, 2020

datahog said:
Ok have that same skimmer,,,awesome skimmer but you are right the directions are junk... I would run a long air line from skimmer to 1 gallon empty plastic milk jug...or let it go right back into tank,,,while it is breaking in...mine took 2 weeks of running before film built up so it would run smoothly...also what they don't tell you is to make sure you pull the 2 discharge tubes out and put them back in so they don't block discharge flow..the ends with the black sponge..if there all the way up into pipe they block flow on the elbow above... Once it breaks in the micro bubbles will die down...when it is running you only want the bubbles going half way up the neck of collector...sounds like you are not far off from it working correctly...post if you have more issues...

Thank you so much for that information if i would have know that about that Skimmer i would have filled a bucket with salt water and let it do it's Break in process for the two weeks in the bucket instead of messing up my Aquarium