RS Max Nano - Protein Skimmer

[Leonard Sixt]

Well the tank is about 10 months old and it seems that the protein skimmer is having issues producing foam. As much as I'd like to think my water is that clean, I'm somewhat not believing it.

That said it never really produced a lot of foam - exception when it was breaking in.

I have been dosing Vibrant for about 5 weeks - so I'm not sure if that has an effect on it or not. The only other dosing I do is all-for-reef on regular basis. I run carbon in the media area, and other that the socks and bubble sponges, that's it.

Parameters seem fine.

Could it be the Vibrant that has reduced foam production? I'd think it would increase it - not decrease it.

BTW - removed the skimmer this morning gave it a good cleaning - but about the same foam production as before.

 

[Naturalreef]

I have the max nano and I remember the skimmer taking a long time to work correctly. You have the gate valve you can move up and down which I’m sure you already know about. As far as Vibrant goes, I used it as well with great success. I also had huge algae problems. Once vibrant breaks down the algae, the nutrients go back into the water where the skimmer and water changes remove. If you dont have much algae issues, then vibrant is keeping nutrients low which will cause low skimmate output.