Please Help! Skimmer and Q's??

[megarinnyroo]

Hi all,

I have had my set up for about 3 weeks now and alls going well, I have stable salt content and temp, filter and powerhead running and a good clean up crew, Ihave lost one of my 2 Turbo snails but everything else is well. I've been feeding my hermits once a week with crab cuisine and dried seaweed for the snails too. The crabs seem happy and have started to swap shells (I assume this is a good thing?!)

My question is about my Skimmer, I bought a BOYU WG201 this week and have just put it into the tank, However I really don't know how its meant to work? Its running and there is a tornado type swirl in the middle, but I was wondering where the scum collects? does anyone know?? also is the white pipe at the top meant to be in the water or above?? I assumed above to provide air inflow?

I have just removed all my filter, powerhead and thermometer and cleaned in fresh RO water and the tank now looks terrible!!! Loads of bits floating around. Is this normal?

I have a 60L tank.

Any help greatly appreciated!!! :?

 

[Anonymous]

First off, :welcome:

Secondly, I was bit puzzled to see that you're feeding the hermits and snails, as they're generally added to tanks to help keep the tank clean of algae - they feed on what grows naturally. I'm also wondering if you have any live rock in the tank at the moment, as that's generally seen to be one of the building block tools of the filtration system for a salt water aquarium. If you have live rock, is there any algae growing on it at the moment? If there is, I wouldn't bother feeding the hermits, they will have enough to feed on from the rock and adding food will just be one more thing for your filtration to deal with. Speaking of which...

I'm afraid I've not heard of that skimmer and although a quick Google search turned up some places selling it, it looked very basic/cheap to me. I'm not sure how well it will skim to be honest. Where are you based? Are you in the US/Europe? If so, there are much better skimmers out there you could invest in if you have the funds (it's probably the most important piece of equipment for your tank).

What are you planning to keep in the tank other than what's in there at the moment? That will help us advise you on what you need most.

 

[megarinnyroo]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I have made a trip to my Aquatics store today and they said the same thing so I bought a new one, its a VSkim 120 and looks much better, I get how it works and the man in the shop was really helpful!

I also had my water tested and all the levels were perfect! Really pleased that its going ok so far! I have 6Kilos of Live rock in the tank too. I got my dates wrong, the tank has been cycling for 4 weeks.

My stockist said it was time to add some live stock so I bought 2 Clowns, they're now adjusted and in the tank. I had to re angle my powerhead as the flow was too strong but they seem happy.

Thanks for the advise about the crabs, i'll let them fend for themselves, the rock does have some algae on it.

I found out today that I have Aiptasia (4 at the moment) in my tank so I've ordered a peppermint Shrimp to keep numbers down, I don't want to kill it unless I have to as It's quite pretty!!

My skimmer looks much better than the other but is quite noisy!! it creating a lot of bubbles in the tank at the moment, the manual says that these will disappear when it actually has something to skim, is this right?

Thank You again for the advise!

 

[novaleesa]

Okay so I have read on the importance of protien skimmers, but Im just not sure whether or not I am going to get one. I have a 20 gallon tank, with the filtration to filter up to a 55gal. Do I really need to invest in a skimmer? Now heres the kicker. I did things all wrong when setting up my tanks. I know the proper way to do it, Im not an expert by far, but I do know the basics. I work at a petstore so i have to be able to help people with the basics. But not following my own advice I set up my tank (with live rock) and added fish the next day. And by the end of the month I had everything I planned on adding to that tank. They all have been doing great! I have had no dealths (its been about 7 months since first setup) and just recently noticed my Yellowtail damsels have layed eggs. But i want to make sure I keep the sucsess of this tank and I want to know If I should add a protien skimmer. Taxes are coming so now would be a good time.

 

[Anonymous]

:welcome:

Whether you need a protein skimmer depends on a few things like stocking level in the tank, what type corals, how often you feed, how often you do water changes, do you use RO water, etc. so more information about your setup would be helpful