There's a first time for everything

breezy · Aug 10, 2012

setting up my very first fish environment as too I'm going saltwater, I have lots of questions, I came here hoping to find the right answers! Ive never been apart of a forum before so with that said I hope I find what I'm looking for! Also Im still cycling my water I just added 8 damsels about 3 hours ago, I have a 75 gal das tank that I purchased off of craigslist. I love it but I couldnt find much info online about this type of setup and not too sure how a skimmer is exactly supposed to work

uall8up · Aug 10, 2012

Welcome to R2R. A skimmer produces bubbles that trap gunk from your water inside of them. Then the bubbles rise and dispense into a collection cup.

Loki · Aug 10, 2012

First thing would be to take the fish back to where you got them. They are damsels which you don't want (they can be extremely aggressive and kill other fish later) and your tank hasn't cycled yet.

How much rock do you have? What type of lighting and filtration? Do you have a sump(tank in the stand for added filtration)?

And welcome to Reef2Reef! Please ask any questions you have. It could save you a lot of headache and money.

wysiwyg · Aug 10, 2012

welcome to r2r good luck with your first tank. how long did you have it set up before adding fish? what do you have for lighting? how much liverock or dry rock do you have? did you go barebottom or add a substrate?

Pappy · Aug 10, 2012

Welcome to the club and agree with Loki on damsels!

AsphaltPays · Aug 10, 2012

Hello and Welcome to R2R

+ 1 on all stated above

Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk

breezy · Aug 10, 2012

Okay so there are supposed to be bubbles coming out of the... maybe I should upload a photo so everyone can have a better understanding of what I'm working with! But there aren't any bubbles coming out of anywhere, Ive had water and live sand in it for 4 days Ive checked the PH and it currently reads 8.0, The damsels aren't going to be residing here forever, just long enough for me to test the waters! also with the das system the filtration/skimmer comes built inside the tank. Ill upload photo. do I still need a sump?

breezy · Aug 10, 2012

breezy · Aug 10, 2012

And thanks for the warm welcome

revhtree · Aug 10, 2012

Welcome to R2R!

We appreciate your membership!

Thanks for joining and please make sure and post often!

revhtree · Aug 10, 2012

Welcome to R2R!

We appreciate your membership!

Thanks for joining and please make sure and post often!

EmilyXLC · Aug 10, 2012

Welcome to the forums! You will find all of the support & help you need here!

I agree with everyone else on the Damsel situation. If your tank isn't fully cycled yet, it is quite cruel to make fish endure the spike that comes with cycling a new tank.

Loki · Aug 11, 2012

I am unfamiliar with the tank. A skimmer is in most cases a cylindricle tube that has a pump to force water into it. At some point air is mixed with the water as very small bubbles. The foam that is created will trap particulate in the water and then overflow into a collection cup.

This is my skimmer. The air is introduced at the pump and the force of the pump chops the air into small bubbles. You can see that my collection cup is really full with all of the skimmate it has pulled out of the water. The cylinder is clear and the white stuff inside is bubbles.

I hope this helped. There should be no bubbles exiting the skimmer into the tank. So you shouldn't see any bubbles in the display tank.