I need some help/opinions

[AnthonyF]

Hey everyone, so I have been adding a few things but need some help. My skimmer was running but wasn't skimming anything at all. Right now I have a Helfrichi firefish, neon goby, one head purple torch, lobo and Duncan a 2 headed candy cane and a scoly, +a of about 10 snails.

Parameters: pH-8.0
Ammonia-0
Nirtite-0
Nitrate- less than 5
Salinity 1.025
Kh-9.1 DKH
Ca-375
Mg-1300

My question is since my skimmer was getting nothing, should I just take it out. The tank is a biocube 29 and I have a media basket where the water goes through filter floss, purigen and then chemi-pure elite so I'm guessing the skimmer just doesn't have anything to skim because it gets caught before hitting the skimmer. So I have shut the skimmer off for a while. Should I just take it out and put a fuge in there and get the fuge light or do you think the skimmer will pull stuff once I add more fish/corals to the tank? Thanks!

 

[PSU4ME]

Skimmers on small tanks are tough. My 9002 worked sometimes and other times it didn't but i don't think it was because there was nothing to skim. ON a 29, I think you have the option to remove it if you're replacing with the media packet and purigen/CPE as long as you do good for water changes........5g a week is easy and a good % for your tank and that IMO would reduce the need for the skimmer.

 

[Shawnburg]

Skimmers on small tanks are tough. My 9002 worked sometimes and other times it didn't but i don't think it was because there was nothing to skim. ON a 29, I think you have the option to remove it if you're replacing with the media packet and purigen/CPE as long as you do good for water changes........5g a week is easy and a good % for your tank and that IMO would reduce the need for the skimmer.

I second that! I bought this tank and skimmer. The tank is great but the skimmer didn't work more than it did. I ended up buying a Eshopps Hang-On and it mad such a big difference just running over night.

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[wpeterson]

Most skimmers require some careful adjustment and have long break in periods.

I had a Remora Nano on my 29gal that was pulling 1cup of "green tea" wet skimmate well once it was broken in. I just cleaned it all out and moved it onto a new 22gal and it wasn't pulling anything. I had to adjust the skimmate cup down to collect enough to coat the column with gunk enough it would stick and then slowly raise the collection cup back up to full height to get a proper skim out of this. It took about a week of daily adjustments to get it working.

On the other hand, I setup a brand new Remora-S on the 29gal with a Cobalt MJ1200 and it pulled good skim within 24 hours. Some skimmers are more finicky than others.

I would advise patience and tweaking the adjustments until it starts to pull something. If you have a separate pump driving the skimmer, perhaps consider upgrading it?

 

[AnthonyF]

I had the thing running for over two weeks. It was skimming very little before I had the purigen and chemi-pure but since then its nothing. I slowly adjusted it but the only way to get anything even 1/2 way up was to open the valve almost all the way and it was ridiculously loud. Right now the neon is pretty small. I'm going to be adding a small basslet and a pair of clowns and that will be it. maybe I'll try the skkmmer then once there's some more bio load and if not then I'll just switch it over to a fuge.

 

[nemodan]

Skimmer + Fuge..... and a 10%, at least, weekly water change

I never used any media in my tanks.

 

[AnthonyF]

Skimmer + Fuge..... and a 10%, at least, weekly water change

I never used any media in my tanks.

I asked InTank about that. They told me not to do that because some of the chaeto will / can escape from the fuge basket and get sucked into the skimmer and burn up the pump. I guess its gonna be a game of trial and error for a bit lol.

The other down side is that since the tank is in my room, I wonder how much light would be let out if I did go with a fuge and ran alternating light cycles.

 

[nemodan]

In my SPS tank I have a HOB fuge. The skimmer is inside the fuge with all the cheato over it. Could be I was lucky but in 10 months I did not have any problem. Sometime I see a reduction in water flow and is the cheato blocking the skimmer. I move it with my hands or prune it. Could be the design of the skimmer you have ?

You do not need a reverse light system. I have both (2 tanks) and there is no difference. This SPS tank has the fuge lights on during the day because it will be too much light for the tank at night. The same will be in your room if light is at the back of the biocube ( like in mine). ALL WORKS with the light during the day. My pH is 7.8 to 8.2 and all grows.

The 29 G biocube is similar to the 14G. In first chamber I have the skimmer . In second chamber the fuge and third chamber the return. I have done 0 modifications to the factory design. You saw my pictures on the January photo contest (upside down).