Skimmer/water quality question

[Brew12]

Lately, I have been having issues with my skimmer and nutrient control in general. My nitrates can fluctuate from near 0ppm up to 40ppm and back down to 0ppm over the course of a week. This has been going on for almost 2 month. No dosing or chemical filtration on my part in the last 3 weeks but the fluctuations continue. I also have negligible algae in my tank but I do have a large CuC.

Over the last 2 months my skimmer has been impossible to control. I'm not sure if it is the cause or effect. To show my problem, I'm attaching this picture. I cleaned it 8 hours prior to this picture being taken. As you can see, it is producing a very light colored skimmate but the bubbles are overflowing the cup. Even small adjustments either make the foaming worse or cause it to overflow in under 2 hours.

It is a Bubble Magus Curve 7 skimmer. I do have an Aquamaxx Cone 2 that I repaired and could change it out with but I'm not convinced it would help.

Thoughts?

 

[3mm3]

Are you getting algae blooms? If you pulled out a bucket is it tinted green?

 

[Brew12]

Are you getting algae blooms? If you pulled out a bucket is it tinted green?

Nope, no algae bloom and water from the tank is clear. I do have to clean my glass every 3 or 4 days for a light algae build up but I've always done that.

 

[ksed]

Can you run both at the same time?

 

[Brew12]

Can you run both at the same time?

I tried very early on without much luck. I guess I could try again.

 

[mcarroll]

Does that skimmer cup have a drain? If so I'd use it. Seems like you're up against the cup size more than anything.

Barring that change, if it's flooding out before you can get back to empty the cup, then I would throttle it back a little at a time like I described in PM.

My skimmer will do the same then when it's tuned "too rich" which is what I call too much air....and I do not have a drain in my skimmer cup. Just FYI, this wasn't a "limit" on my AquaC as it had a drain.....and if it was a big deal now, I could tap a drain or get Tunze's drain solution. This limit isn't too bad for me, but my bio-load is tiny.

I still don't think there's anything but coincidence between this and your up and down nutrients though.

That's a sign of an unbalanced system where you have a simple community that blooms and crashes....maybe being feasted on by a second community blooming with or against them.

Lotsa words to explain, but just some dosed fertilizer to correct. Treat N and P much the same as alkalinity – they are limiters.

NO3: ≥ 5-10 ppm
PO4: ≥ 0.10 ppm

 

[Thomasj616]

Mine will sometimes go a little crazy when my ato goes off also when I change out my filter socks.
I was also having the same issue I raised the skimmer up an inch and just gave the contact time a little longer and it really helped

 

[Brew12]

Does that skimmer cup have a drain? If so I'd use it. Seems like you're up against the cup size more than anything.

I could let it drain, but right now to keep it from foaming I would be draining a gallon or 2 a day. That seems a bit extreme.

Thinking about it more, I could create a simple water change system by putting salt water in my ATO. Maybe this would help pull the crud out of the water and get things calmed down faster.

 

[Brew12]

Mine will sometimes go a little crazy when my ato goes off also when I change out my filter socks.

I've had this happen also, so I ran without filter socks all last week and it didn't help.

I was also having the same issue I raised the skimmer up an inch and just gave the contact time a little longer and it really helped

That is something I hadn't thought of. I'll have to give it a try when I get home. Great suggestion!

 

[mcarroll]

Thinking about it more, I could create a simple water change system by putting salt water in my ATO. Maybe this would help pull the crud out of the water and get things calmed down faster.

I'd try just draining into a bucket for a while to see how it goes.....if you really see big enough shifts in salinity then maybe what you're describing would be worth it! Most of the time the changes aren't that big.....and if you do regular water changes, just re-adjust salinity at that time.

You can use something like this to calibrate the required "correction" at any time:
Target Salinity Calculator - Hamza's Reef

I've had this happen also, so I ran without filter socks all last week and it didn't help.


That is something I hadn't thought of. I'll have to give it a try when I get home. Great suggestion!

Definitely check your setup basics...I didn't think to go there either.

But if the problems continues in spite of any adjustments, I would make the same recommendation:

Fix the nutrients situation.

Whatever population is booming and then busting and releasing those nutrients is probably also behind the skimmer irregularity. (Phyto? Cyano? Dino's? Hard to predict.)

FYI, complex communities do not exhibit boom and bust cycles like this.

You need a more complex microbial community – that much is for sure. Not more pods....not more bacteria. More everything else. Persistently available N and P will be required for them to proliferate. You have to break the boom and bust cycle you're seeing.

 

[Brew12]

Definitely check your setup basics...I didn't think to go there either.

This one is making me go ;Facepalm

I played with it at all sorts of heights when I first set up the system. I ended up building a stand to make it work that wasn't even close to manufacturer recommendations. Now that my system is more than just clean dry rock and lab generated bacteria adjusting it probably should have been my first thought. ;Blackeye

 

[ksed]

Try to run carbon in a reactor for a week a see if you notice a difference. I bet you will

 

[Brew12]

Try to run carbon in a reactor for a week a see if you notice a difference. I bet you will

Already did that for 1o days, no change. Ran a small amount of GFO for a few days since PO4 was a bit high but PO4 plummeted so I pulled it. Have previously tried carbon dosing when nitrates started climbing to see if I could help keep it from peaking so high but even a fairly small amount dosed twice caused my NO3 to bottom out.

 

[ksed]

My assumption is if your skimmer is still skimming the way it is after running carbon then there must be quite a bit of DOC's in the aquarium.
IMO the skimmer is not keeping up . I would try to run both, you have nothing to loose. Let them run for a couple of weeks and see what happens.

 

[mcarroll]

@Brew12 maybe very interesting to take some samples from your tank under a microscope.