Hey All,
Four weeks ago, I resurrected my old 120 Gal tank that had been collecting dust for about 4 years. I'm using most of my original equipment. most of it seems to work fine...
I am concerned about my skimmer:
- a Red Sea Berlin classic hang on the back skimmer rated for 250 gallon tank poweref by a Rio 2500 powerhead
Its hardly producing anything. It poduced WAY more years ago than it is now. I'm thinking my tank is just too young to expect decent production.... That and my bio-load was higher and I was feeding fish back then. Right now, the tank has about 60# of cured live rock, a few pounds of live sand from a friend's tank, some aiptasia and brown algae and that's it. Water parameters are pretty good for a tank that is still cycling.
HOWEVER,
When I set the system up a month ago, I noticed a loose square piece of plastic down in its base... I can't remember if it was loose when I had the tank setup years ago. Another difference I see is the inner tube of the skimmer has what looks like a tight tornado of bubbles about half an inch across... Years ago, there was a twisting motion of the water and bubbles in the inner tube, but they were spread out across the entire inner tube. I'm wondering if this loose piece of plastic is supposed to help deflect the tornado affect from the water entering through the bottom of the skimmer.
Is my skimmer broken?
At any rate, I hope what I described makes sense.
Any thoughts/opinions will be greatly appreciated!
Four weeks ago, I resurrected my old 120 Gal tank that had been collecting dust for about 4 years. I'm using most of my original equipment. most of it seems to work fine...
I am concerned about my skimmer:
- a Red Sea Berlin classic hang on the back skimmer rated for 250 gallon tank poweref by a Rio 2500 powerhead
Its hardly producing anything. It poduced WAY more years ago than it is now. I'm thinking my tank is just too young to expect decent production.... That and my bio-load was higher and I was feeding fish back then. Right now, the tank has about 60# of cured live rock, a few pounds of live sand from a friend's tank, some aiptasia and brown algae and that's it. Water parameters are pretty good for a tank that is still cycling.
HOWEVER,
When I set the system up a month ago, I noticed a loose square piece of plastic down in its base... I can't remember if it was loose when I had the tank setup years ago. Another difference I see is the inner tube of the skimmer has what looks like a tight tornado of bubbles about half an inch across... Years ago, there was a twisting motion of the water and bubbles in the inner tube, but they were spread out across the entire inner tube. I'm wondering if this loose piece of plastic is supposed to help deflect the tornado affect from the water entering through the bottom of the skimmer.
Is my skimmer broken?
At any rate, I hope what I described makes sense.
Any thoughts/opinions will be greatly appreciated!
