Skimmer question.

JCSReefing · Jan 12, 2016

I have a 75 gallon reef with a 20g sump and am constantly cleaning it. Roughly I will clean the glass and in two days it's filthy again. Everything looks fine and levels are fine. I am running a bubble magus nac 3.5 skimmer with 2 clowns, mandarin golby, yellow golby, two fire fish, and a blenny. I have two enenomies and about 5 different soft corals such as frogspawn and yellow polyps and what not. My skimmer is skimming great, very dark nasty but just wondering if it is just not sucking enough water to process in the skimmer before it gets returned to the display. Could this be an issue with why it's not "looking" clean? I also run a carbon/gfo reactor. Any advice/thoughts?

redfishbluefish · Jan 12, 2016

Even though you are at the upper limits for that skimmer, I don't think that's your problem. How much do you feed? I'd consider adding chaetomorpha, or some other nutrient export system to your sump. I believe that would help keeping nitrates and phosphates down.

JCSReefing · Jan 12, 2016

I have tried to keep cheato in my sump with an led light on about 10hrs or more every day and after a month, it's Nasty looking and like decaying? No clue what I'm doing wrong??

redfishbluefish · Jan 12, 2016

Most likely that LED light is not producing the ideal spectrum. Either find an LED that's made to grow algae (plants) or try a full spectrum compact fluorescent bulb and see how that works.

JCSReefing · Jan 12, 2016

http://www.amazon.com/Kohree-Toucha...id=1452623271&sr=8-10&keywords=refugium+light

That is the light I use. Why wouldn't it work? What light should I be using?

redfishbluefish · Jan 12, 2016

I hate to be the one to tell you, but that light is just plain useless. A total of 3 watts in 48 LEDs.

If you wish to stay with LEDs, you want something producing a color temperature of 5000-6500 K. Now I don't know the size of your sump, but something between 9-20 watts. HERE is a potential candidate for a very small sump that you could put into an inexpensive $7 clip on fixture.

JCSReefing · Jan 13, 2016

So the dirty ness and having to clean every two days as in the glass and what not is not from my skimmer perhaps being too small?

twilliard · Jan 13, 2016

This is where we get into a balance issue.
I ran the nac 5e on my 46bf.
Well it was doing its job I had to feed much less and more maintenance
It takes time to drop no3 and po4 levels with your skimmer.
Watch what you are feeding (food wise)
For instance I feed flake once a day to keep my po4 up.