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There's also the theory that over skimming will remove too much of bacteria and micro organizms that corals feed on. However, I havn't seen a lot of hard evidence to support that theory.

It's way too much skimmer. I would look for one that is rated for 300g, tops. The display tank may be rated for 195g, but that is probably using outside dimensions. Add sand and rock, and the displacement of water will pretty much add up to what water is in the sump. The 90g refugium technically shouldn't be skimmed, although that water is part of a closed system so it will be affected by the filtration.

Even adding in a frag tank isn't all that much to be concerned about. When I set up the 400g, I contacted Euroreef to discuss the continued use of my skimmer on the larger body of water. Since it was a new setup with a small bioload initially, we agreed it should do the job for the time being but I might need to upgrade later. A year later, the tank had over 65 fish and a lot of coral, but the skimmer had no problem keeping up. That skimmer has been used on the 280g, a 400g, and currently skims the 215 while waiting for the 400g to return.

A skimmer that is too big usually won't be able to collect enough proteins in the water to create a foam head. Why spend that much money only to find it out it was a bad purchase?

Yes, regular dosing will help, but all you are doing is automating what you can do by hand. When I had my 29g and 55g tanks running, I used ESV's B-Ionic, dosing both Part A and Part B every morning. It only took 30 seconds per part, pouring it in at a trickle in an area of high flow, and then I dosed the other tank. The reason to dose it early in the morning is because this is usually when the tank's pH is at its lowest, and the alkalinity dose will boost pH in the tank. It's a buffer, after all.

A dosing pump will add these solutions for you via a timer. You'll have to determine how long it needs to run to add the exact amount you want dosed, and once you know that duration, set your timer to do so once a day. You could even cut the dose in half, dosing every 12 hours if you wanted, or in quarters for every six hours... you get the idea.

There is no need to chase pH levels - pH wil take care of itself if you have the correct salinity, alkalinity, calcium and magnesium levels. Get your Alkalinity to 8 dKH, and pH will rise accordingly.

If you've not read this article yet, please do. It's always accessible from the footer of the site:
http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.p...-Water-Quality

Nerites are a great suggestion. Scraping the glass clean with a credit card will allow you to observe the refugium more easily.

Any food food that makes its way to the refuguim will be food for all the little micro organisms that live there, but if you're not using the refugium for nutrient control then I don't see anything wrong with having a couple snails in there to keep the glass clean. I'd probably go with Nerite snails as mine seem to always stay on the glass.

I just scrape my sump down every couple months when it starts getting really bad, but my only filtration right now is an algae scrubber and all the algae that grows in the sump under it. I only remove half at a time since it's swarming with copopods and amphipods.

Thank you for the input. Alaska Phil, if I left the refuge with nothing in there except the rock, sand and cheato with out crabs or snails wouldn't the uneating food that filters down and sit in it also cause nitrate and phosphate problems to? I am running bio-pellets alond with skimmer and a GDO reactor. Guess what I am asking is leaving food in there to accumulate better or worse then having snails or crabs whose poop will also accumulate?

I have crabs and snails in mine. My refugium is for the micro organisms mainly, I run biopellet. for the nutrient control.

Snails will help clean the algae from the glass, but it kind of defetes the purpose of a refugium since they'll poop it out as nitrate and phosphate.

I decided to take out the filter socks to see if its worth the hassle of changing them twice a week. My alk level last Monday is at 8.1 and week previous was near 6. Ph was also 7.4 and lower then I would like it to be at. I was able to raise with seachem marine buffer for a ph of 7.9-8.0, hoping it would bring up the alk. Now for the algae I was having a problem with I ended up buying some Mexican turbo snails and after 1 night I had less the half left and a week later I am down to almost none on sand and rocks. Can I feed the snails dry leaf algae to compensate the lack of hair algae?

Originally Posted by Articfox32

Leaving a filter sock in to long can increase nitrates and phosphates???
for the life of me I have been trying to get ride of green hair algae for about 6-8 months now. I just swapping tanks using my old rock but all new sand and after almost 10 days I start gettin the algae growing again. Before algae started my parameters were all good except alk was low and ph is at 7.7 - 7.8.
Hanna low range phosphate tester is showing 0.00.
could the filter socks be causin the algae to grow?

Green hair algae is a beast. You state your alk is low, what is the number? I wouldn't say your filter socks are causing the issue but they may not be helping it. Green hair algae will make nitrate and phosphate test show zero since they are using it as fuel.

Leaving a filter sock in to long can increase nitrates and phosphates???
for the life of me I have been trying to get ride of green hair algae for about 6-8 months now. I just swapping tanks using my old rock but all new sand and after almost 10 days I start gettin the algae growing again. Before algae started my parameters were all good except alk was low and ph is at 7.7 - 7.8.
Hanna low range phosphate tester is showing 0.00.
could the filter socks be causin the algae to grow?

I hate socks. I used one to catch some algae that formed and I scrubbed off while I was away on winter vacation and it ended up catching and kill my several of my molly fry.
I always find them full of my pods too. I'd like to do away with them all forever.

Agree with Melev- they are a PIA. Now with saying that I still use them. On one drain I have a filter sock, on the other, where the protein skimmer is, I dont. I have 12 of them. I throw them in a bucket when they are dirty. When the bucket is full, they go into the washer with some bleach. Maybe once a month or so I do this.

Thank you for the comments. Changing out the sock do become an hassle. Time to take them out and let the filter do there job.

I hate hate hate cleaning filter socks. I own four, and in two years I've only used three of the four. And when I did use one for a few days, it ended up outside to dry out filthy (as is). Eventually I cleaned them all, dried them out and tucked them in my storage area until the day I really need to use one again. It is easier to siphon out my sump two or three times a year.

When I see particulates blowing through my tank, and I don't see many, I tend to believe that it is food for something in my reef and will be devoured. We are tending an eco-system, and crystal clear particle-free water isn't natural at all. These are museum showcases, they are living breathing animals and the occasional bit of dust moving through the tank is fine.

If a fish accidentally swims down the drain, it will likely be killed in the sock since it can't get out and would be hammered by flow or bubbled around to death. You might even kill it during cleaning not knowing it was in the sock.

Lastly, any waste that sits in the sock will be there until you take the sock out. If you feed on Monday and some food traps in the sock, it will stay in the sock rotting until Thursday if that is when you pull it. And if you wait longer, you've left compounding waste to rot and contribute to rising NO3 / PO4 levels.

You must change/clean filter socks frequently and it still never fully catches everything meaning you still end up having to clean your sump. If you don't use them you just have more of a mess to clean. I use to run them until I noticed it wasn't catching everything and it was too much of a hassle. Now I have added powerheads to the sump section housing the reactor and skimmer to keep items suspended longer in hopes of it increasing the chances of it getting pulled out by my skimmer, I also would prefer more detrius to settle in parts of the sump easier to access and clean.

No, they are fine. The original post had all little thumbnails, so I increased them to something enjoyable. None are missing.

Sorry pictures seem to be split in half after I posted them.

Wow, that is amazing

I love your new setups. That was an interesting idea about the groves to direct water into your drain if something happens. Thanks for sharing.