Blog Comments

Do you have a picture of these?

I would say that if it is a rock that can be removed and has no other things you want to keep alive in/on it then just take it out and soak it in some hydrogen peroxide for about 20 minutes. Then take out the rock rise it really well with some RO water and put it back in the tank after everything falls out of the rock dead.

There are various carbon dosing methods to reduce nitrate in the water. The vodka dosing article touches on sugar or vinegar dosing as other types used, and even how some people combine all three into a single mixed dose. Be sure to read up on this topic before trying anything new like carbon dosing.

Originally Posted by melev

Every water change will bring it down. A 50% water change will take it down by 50% each time.

Biopellets, vodka, vinegar, sugar, Seachem Matrixx - all products to reduce nitrate.

Sugar? What is the process for dosing sugar?

Just feed less twice a day

Thanks melev everything I have read says to feed what the fish will eat in 2-5 minutes and they gobble this up easily in 2. Should I go twice a day or only once? They are always happy!!!

So 10 cubes per day? Yes, that would be polluting your water. Big water changes weekly would help, and back to back ones every other day for a week or so would get them down to very low levels. The balance is to feed enough to keep your animals happy and not overload the system (food or their waste).

Thanks to all. My tank is a 125 with25-30 gallon fuge.
rodi water change 20 gallons every two weeks
I might hav been over feeding so I am going to try to
cut back a little . There are about12 fish total
Two 4" tangs and 10 1 1/2" varied.
I have been feeding two times per day
what they eat in about2-3 minutes
Its about 5 frozen cubes and they seem to eat it all up
should I feed them half that twice per day
or that much once??? Thanks again. Marc!

Thanks to all! when I cleaned it I only cleaned the skimmer cup itself... I took the skimmer apart and only took off the part to clean
the impeller wheel and didn't clean inside at all .
Then I raised it up by 1 1/2 inches and it seems to be working well!
about 1 " of skim ate overnight .

Yea I will second Marc on the barometric pressure. When the pressure drop mine skims more. It had me scratching my head. Also when I start mine back up I have to turn it back till it settles down or it over skims

I don't have a tank at the moment, and I'm currently debating wheather or not to have one right now. But I'm convinced to have a successful reef you need some method of continuous nitrate and phosphate export. The algae scrubber worked well for me, the guy I gave that setup to reports that it's still working well for him. But as Marc said, there are lots of other techniques that work too.

Phil

Every water change will bring it down. A 50% water change will take it down by 50% each time.

Biopellets, vodka, vinegar, sugar, Seachem Matrixx - all products to reduce nitrate.

I would put something waterproof under the skimmer to raise it up 1" for now. It may be sitting in too much water, and your water may simply have more DOCs to remove now that it is working at peak efficiency again. Also, weather changes can affect skimmers as the barometric pressure varies.

do you have an RO-DI system or do you use tap water in your water changes? you need to test your water before you add salt and after you add salt so you can know for sure that you are not adding nitrates into the water with changes. How often and what volume of water changes do you typically do? People will also run bio-pellets to try and reduce nitrates as well as phosphates but it is just a band-aid treatment and will never replace the importance of regular water changes. Try and determine the underlying reason for why you have high nitrates in the first place (overfeeding, lack of water changes, nitrates in source water or salt, tank is overstocked) once you figure out why then you can fix the problem.

man I am going to have to start proof-reading my posts after I type them up so they don't make me seem like i talk funny, lol. how well are bubbles forming and how much skim-mate is being produced in comparison to the way it was before you cleaned it all up? How long has it been since you cleaned the skimmer this thoroughly? If it has been a while then I would say that the problem may be that you were so far over do that you are having to do a mini-break in on your skimmer just like you had when it was first purchased. You should try to make time to clean your skimmer at least once a month to maintain it's current production and current adjustment to your tanks parameters.good luck and I hope to hear good things as well as see some pictures in the near future

Thanks Cyano, It is most confusing because it seemed to be working perfectly before I started... now I had to raise it 1 1/2 inches.

no i dont have enough room under the tank because I set up the auto top up in there.
Our aquarium is the feature in our living room and it takes up a lot of space. Did you get up and running again Phil? do you have shots of your setup? Thanks Marc

Well over time as the tank ages and the skimmer gets well broken in the height on the skimmer may need to be raised to accommodate the way your biological filter has established itself. With that said though I would check your Venturi as well as making sure that your lid is on tight. A trick to helping reduce the height the water rises to is if you have holes in the top of your lid on the skimmer collection cup you can put electrical tape over the holes and then pock some holes in the tape gradually increasing the size of the hole with a thumbtack or needle until you get your desired water level (I had to do this with my current skimmer until it's break in period water over to keep water off of my floor.) good luck!

Did you ever set up an algae scrubber?

Phil

Thanks Marc, I'll post a picture on Facebook later