Help! Skimmers Gone Crazy !

[Chucker]

FWIW, I'd be wary of turning the skimmer off- killing off the cyano with meds will leave a fair amount of decaying material in your system which will consume oxygen fairly rapidly as it decomposes. If your system is normally low on aeration, and relies on the skimmer for oxygen exchange, you quite possibly may end up shooting yourself in the foot.

Better course of action might be to throttle back the skimmer if possible. (Speaking of which, I don't recall seeing what skimmer you are running, and on what size tank- this may help everyone give better advice in the long run.)

 

[Dewman]

75 Gallon tank.
It has a 1 inch layer of aragonite gravel, with a 2 inch layer of oolitic sand and a new 1 inch layer of fresh oolitic.

Skimmer is an odd one...
I was told by the seller that it was called a Pyramid Skimmer.
It is all acrylic. A box hangs on the outside of the tank, and a seperate piece shaped like a triangular prism sits down inside it, point up. The collection cup is, of course, at the apex. A Rio 600 shoots premixed air-water, into the apex approximately 1.5 inches from the top. The nozzle is pointed down, and the bubbles are VERY FINE.
I have no idea who builds it or where it came from, but it usually produces medium wet bubbles and the skimmate is usually like a watered down cup of coffee (except it's green-grey).

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant ... =Aquamedic

Is this the skimmer? If so I think its a little undersized for your system.

 

[reefland]

I would be surprised if any skimmer based on a RIO600 could skim a 75 gallon tank with a decent load.

 

[Dewman]

JDM-

No, thats a Prism. It works on the same principal though. This thing is a LOT bigger than a Prism skimmer.
I have the option of using other power heads but I chose the 600 because when I attached an 800 to it, it made the bubbles too wet.

I will take a picture of the thing. In fact, I will take pics of everything.
I need to do that soon.

 

[Dewman]

I wish I could explain it so you would be able to imagine what I am talking about.

I am on a budget right now, but I have enough for a good skimmer as long as I don't have to spend over $175.
Can anyone recommend a good one. In sump would be best.

 

[Anonymous]

agree with all the options posted.the poly filter also helps indicate what's getting removed by the color it changes to.my personal recommendation for a good skimmer that's relatively low priced is the berlin by red sea- it's also adjustable enough so you can run it even with a foaming agent in the tank!i think your low pH might be an indication of something...(though it could have been the emycin, maybe it's linked to the 'mystery' cause of your cyano outbreak.the skimmer you have now, is, i agree, 'toy-ish'.(the red sea worked great for me w/a 750gph 'mag drive' pump-they last a long time and are reliable and cheap.a good PO4 remover is phosguard by sea chem-use it ln small amounts(a couple of tablespoons,changed about every 3 days until your levels are below .1ppm, then put in a 6 tablespoon 'maintenance' charge-spc is right about the hot magnum-cheap,easy to use,and very versatile, both for micron and chemical filtration.before you get the poly filter get the PO4 test kit!!(pleeeze).it's the most useful diagnostic tool for you at present-imho :wink: luck :!:
by the way,-what's your alk.level at?(dKh)

 

[Anonymous]

by the way- the foamate your looking at in your collection cup should prob'ly be DARK (almost black)-sound like your getting too much water to waste ratio from your present skimmer

 

[danmhippo]

Or you can purchase a Hot Mag, I have to lend mine to danmhippo all the time .
Steve

Oh yeah, "Hot Mag" sure work wonders.........

Thanks Steve for lending it to me all these times, but I don't think you want it back......It's kinda wet and used looking......

 

[danmhippo]

Dewman, Is it this one then,

 

[Dewman]

Danmhippo-
That's not it either...
I am pretty sharp when it comes to seeing something and remembering how it was built. And I have never seen one of these before, but the guy at the LFS who sold it to me had been using it for years in his tanks.

Vitz-
My skimmate is normally like coffee (that dark, but runny like water)

Per my Salifert test kits
My: Alk is 3.5 meq/L
Calcium is above 400 mg/l
PH is a little over 8.2
PO4 is less than .1 mg/l
no2=0
Nitrates are(of course) high (stick test)
salinity= 1.025

I put some phosphate filter material in my filter and stuck it on the tank for a bit.

If you want to see my skimmer, email me at, [email protected] and I will send you a picture of the skimmer...

 

[Dewman]

For those of you who I sent the pics to... I will explain the drawing a bit...

At the apex of the triangular insert, you will see a round tube just below the cup, that is where the bubbles shoot in as indicated by the arroows.
The triangular piece inside is removable the box and the surface skimmer (not portrayed in the pic) are held together by nylon bolts to allow the skimmer box to drop and raise to adjust water level.
The piece that protrudes from the box portion is the outlet or , rather, overflow really...

If anyone else has a better way to display this thing so everyone can see, let me know. It is in the form of a JPEG.

 

[crackerbuzz]

Hey dewman.....long time ago...but what was the result?

 

[Dewman]

Wow, that was a long time ago.
Lot's of mistakes with that tank. It was the first Big tank I ever had.
Did I say lots of mistakes already?

Well,
Let me think.
I know everything came out fine. I had the tank another 7 months after that. I had to move for my job and couldn't take the tank.
I eventually bought a Nautilus TE Skimmer which worked amazingly well. I had a Dolphin pump hooked to it. It pulled a lot of gunk out of the water and was great after i tuned it in.

As for the Cyano. I didn't know about low-flow areas accumulating detritis. Well, they do. And cyano love piles of gunk on the floor of the aquarium.
I eventually bought new powerheads and blew all of that stuff into the skimmer and with enough flow, never had to worry about it again.


Side Note here:
I will never recommend Antibiotics to anyone owning a reef tank. I think most people wouldn't. I did have a die off of some of the bacteria. I noticed the skimmer ran dirty for a while, but eventually, it replenished its self. It was not the right thing to do. Quick fixes never are. I should have just been more attentive to the needs of my tank.

That sure was a blast from the past.

 

[pwj1286]

What kind of medication did you use on your tank?

If it was "Chemi-Clean" from the company, Boyd Industries...normal.

Does it everytime to my tank, never fails and I have an oversize Euro-Reef on my tank.

Turn your skimmer off and wait 48 hours and do a water change.



The only quick fix I do reconmend for saltwater tanks...is Chemi-Clean, for the purposes of getting rid of cynobacteria. K.O. punch to cyno.

Downsides are: no chemical filtration or protien skimming for 48 hrs then a 25% water change.

Does the job though, gone completely.
_________________
Mercedes CLS Class

 

[Dewman]

PWJ1286
- Not sure what the LFS gave me back then.
All I know is that it sure did make that skimmer churn.


This thread was started by me 4 years ago.
Wow. Hard to believe I have been a member here for 5 years almost and I only have 588 posts.

Time sure flies when you're having fun!!!!!!!!!

 

[pwj1286]

sounds like Chemi-Clean too me.

If it looks white, like cocaine. Chemi-Clean.
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marijuana joint