question about protien skimmer

[soymilk]

I can get technical about it... but I won't go that far into it unless you want me to. There are a few links myjohnson stickied up on top. I have written a few long post on marshreef about dosing which can be seen here...

http://www.marshreef.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=49443

Depending on what corals you have and the demand for suppliments, you should be testing Alk, Calc, Mag. Phosphate and nitrate should be tested if you have problems with algae. By the looks of your protein skimmer, looks like your bioload is very high.

[stephen]

well you dumbed it up just right. thanks for the great info

[Sea-agg09]

Are you buying salt water pre-mixxed from a store, or mixing your own? If you're making your own, invest in a high-quality salt and just do consistent water changes.

[rage]

O wow, a whole month. You must have a light bioload.

I've seen skimmers pull that in 4-5 days.

I don't overfeed my fish so I don't have a lots of waste but that is still a lot.

You've seen tanks that produce that much waste in 4-5 days? What do they put in their tanks? A full jar of fish food every 4-5 days?

[soymilk]

My tank can do that in 3-4 days sometimes. I run a Zeovit. So excess po4 and nitrate is consumed by bacteria. The bacteria reproduce and multiply. The excess bacteria is removed by the protein skimmer.

So that's why my system can make so much skimmate, ESP if I just fed something high in nutrients like enriched Mysis.

[myjohnson]

I don't overfeed my fish so I don't have a lots of waste but that is still a lot.

You've seen tanks that produce that much waste in 4-5 days? What do they put in their tanks? A full jar of fish food every 4-5 days?

See post 11-13 or just google.

[rage]

See post 11-13 or just google.

I've seen the posts.

You can only skim out what you put in. If there are tons of it, your system must have put it in somewhere. Maybe you should look into limiting the source as well?

[soymilk]

I'm not sure everyone gets so worked up about skimmate lol. Like rage said you can only skim out what you put in. So its not really fair to say my skimmate is better than yours or watever. It all depends on tank waste... But some skimmers do suck really bad.

It is pretty surprising you can get that much skimmate in a week stephen... seems like a lot of waste.

[myjohnson]

You can only skim out what you put in. If there are tons of it, your system must have put it in somewhere. Maybe you should look into limiting the source as well?

As such, my following post to him was regarding how much he feeds his fish and corals.

Personally, I keep NPS corals. They eat. Food gets dumped in the water. Skimmer needs to skim it out.

Some skimmers (or skimmer settings) work better then others.

[stephen]

i really dont feed my fish that much once a day sometimes once every couple of days and i dont dose my water much yet and i do weekly water changes allthough my schedules been a liitle screwed up with work and the hollidays so it's been probably closer to three weeks since i have done a water change. i need to get back in gear baddly.