My protein skimmer doesn't work well.

[Marsfrogie]

As the topic states, I have a protein skimmer that has never produced a proper level of foam. In fact, it doesn't to much of anything except make bubbles. I bought the unit as part of an integrated wet/dry hang on back filter. I never installed the bio balls and instead turned it into a sump and dumped some grape algae in it.

My question is. Do I really even need the skimmer? My tank is a 55 gallon reef setup with about 45-50 or so pounds of live rock. For lights I run 4 65watt power compacts. Even with the skimmer never doing it's job correctly, my water is crystal clear and the corals seem to be thriving. I have 3 fish some corals, an anemone, and about 25 hermits/snails in the tank. Is it worth my money to invest in a good quality skimmer or should I just not worry about it?

Another question. I have never done a water change since I set the tank up about 3 months ago either. I just add supplements occasionally and top the water off with a kalkwasser, vinegar, tap water mix every day. About 1/2 gallon a day. PH stays at 8.3-8.4, Alk is normal, no ammonia, nitites or nitrates. Is there anything really bad that can come from this? Everything seems ok to me and my inhabitants seem content. I just hear everyone saying you better change your water all the time.

Anyway thanks for you help. If this has been gone over before, sorry, I couldn't get the search to work.

[twon8]

welcome to rc.
a skimmer isn't necesary, but it gets nasty stuff out of the water.
if you are not doing water changes i would get a skimmer, and a good one at that.

i don't want this in my water.

[jgoodrich71]

In a tank that new, the skimmer may not work, or have to. But, when the tank is a year or too old I'll bet you wont be asking that samr question. I'd just keep what you've got for now and see how things go. Is a skimmer a neccesity? No. Will it help make it easier? Yes.

I don't consider a tank established until it is at least a year old. By that time you should know whether or not it's needed. The same goes for water changes. They will eventually be needed, so get in the habit of doing them now, instead od when it's too late.

[Zach117]

The first thing you need to do is make sure you are using RO/DI water, I am confused about what tap water mix is. They sell RO/DI units.

I would start by reading this and the other WaterKeeper threads as they are a good place to start.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=239848

We need to know what type of skimmer it is first, because the cheap ones are pretty much worthless anyway.

You need to slow down on putting inhabitants in the tank and do a little more research on keeping a reef tank.

Look through the "New to the hobby" section and read others advice, because your tank will not last long with your current maintenance.

Most will tell you to take everything back and start over- hope this is not a sermon just trying to help.

Research, research research!

[Marsfrogie]

What exactly am I trying to remove by doing water changes?

[omni2226]

Bah if it aint broke dont fix it..take everything back and start over what the hell...just keep what you have now and do 10% water changes once a month and you will be ok.

As stated a good skimmer will help a lot so just save up for a nice hang on skimmer like the remora from aqua c or maybe the cpr backpack 2 skimmer. Remora runs about 200 dollors and the cpr runs about 175.

Either way if your animals are alive and kicking then ya doing something right and nothing wrong...

[psimitry]

One of the most commonly asked newbie questions is "Do I need a skimmer?"

There is a little bit of a debate on this, but the answer is usually a resounding "YES." And that answer is one that you should not only have a skimmer, but a good one at that.

A good skimmer that people seem to like around here that would work well on your tank (and I run on mine) is the Coralife Superskimmer 65G model. You can pick one up at Marinedepot for about $90.

And this may sound harsh, but if one can't afford $90 for the service that a skimmer provides, you may want to consider an alternate hobby. Skimmers are THAT important.

As a counterpoint, as previously mentioned one CAN do without a skimmer if you're doing large water changes (typically on the order of 30% per week). This would be such a hassle to me (and eventually so expensive) that I'd rather just buy a skimmer.

[omni2226]

Think of water changes as storms "refreshing" things like trace earth elements and stuff.

[WaterKeeper]

Originally posted by Marsfrogie
What exactly am I trying to remove by doing water changes?

See this thread Are water changes necessary? and I'll tell you why.

And

To Reef Central

[Reeses]

Another point that hasn't been mentioned here is the water going into the skimmer. Is it being pulled from the middle layer of the tank, or is the water being fed into the skimmer from the top layer of tank water? The organics that need to be pulled from the water rise to the top of the water column, which is why you develop a layer of oxygen depriving scuz if the surface isn't agitated enough to keep it from happening. If the intake to your hang on back filter (is it a backpak?) is well below the surface of the water, it's not collecting the "right" water to skim. If you want to try to get better skimming action and your filter is fed through a powerhead, try placing a container just big enough to hold the powerhead that is just barely under the waterline to create an overflow to feed that powerhead the surface layer of the water. It's amazing how it makes such a difference in the quality/quantity of skimmate.

There can be so many factors why a skimmer doesn't work well, and so much research on your particular skimmer and how to get optimal performance.

[Marsfrogie]

The skimmer has a dinky little RIO 600 attactched to it. I turned it sideways and put it as high up as I can get it. We'll see if it works any better now.

[Reeses]

The only time I got my bakpak to pull anything somewhat quality was when I put it into my sump and fed it water directly from my overflow.
If it's a bakpak, you can upgrade the pump to a maxijet 1200. Some people have had better results that way. I never bothered to try it because mine broke and I just got fed up with it.

[Marsfrogie]

It's not a bakpak. I really don't know what it is. I think it's just some generic thing. Basically, a RIO600 feeds water and air to an inlet on teh side of a "reaction chamber". The water flows into the cylindrical chamber and swirls around for a while. The water then flows through a grated center and flows all the way down to the bottom of the sump where it is allowed to go wherever.

[sloshes]

As mentioned above, you can get a really nice Corallife for about $90. Sometimes you have to play around with it a bit to get it just right. I'll go from full air and work back and other times shut down the air and work up to find the happy spot. It you've got a decent bio-load it really is a must.

[sloshes]

I forgot, you can get a better air valve for it for about $1.

[davocean]

Skimmer is the most important piece of equipment IMO
Waterchange is the most important maintenence
Both make the difference between keeping some fish alive for a while, and having longterm succes IMO
Another big fan of coralife.

[affan]

IMHO because your livestock seems 'content' doesn't mean that they are happy, or thriving to their full potential. In a relatively new setup such as yours, they may take a while to actually show any signs of stress or may even continue to live under stress for extended periods of time without showing any signs of trouble at all. A skimmer is not a must, however, it's better to be safe than sorry especially if you're lax in doing your water changes. A good skimmer will optimize your water parameters and in doing so will help your livestock live longer and happier. With all that said, I, still don't think there's any substitute to water changes. Once or twice a month in larger quantities, or once a week in smaller quantity, it has to be done.

[NCreefwannabe]

I would do more reading first. Theres alot of people that have skimmerless tanks. You may want to scope their setups out first. My skimmer works sometimes lol, it pulls out somebrownish water mostly, but I also added an airpump to it and let the rio only pump water.

[Alaskan Reefer]

Get a better skimmer. THE most important piece of filtration available, IMO. Can be done without, but why do so...

[Marsfrogie]

Moving the pump closer to the surface has definately made a difference. It is now bubbling a good amount of foam over into the collection cup. It's a little watery, but at least it's generating a nice amount of foam. Seemed to put a little extra sparkle in the water as well.

If I go ahead and do say a 5 gallon water change every 2 weeks- 1 month, can I discontinue adding supplements? Should I still top off with kalkwasser every day? I'm getting some conflicting data here. Garf's bullet proof reef does water changes along with heavy supplementation. A lot of you guys say just do water changes and don't add anything else. What gives?

If I sound hesitant about routine water changes it's probably because I come from a freshwater background. I know saltwater is a different ballpark, but back in the day with freshwater, I never changed the water. I just topped it off. That tank ran for over 3 years without incident.

[jgoodrich71]

The only way to know if you need to add supplements is to test. If your calcium and alkalinty are low, then yes, you will need to continue to add for it. Just because one method works for one tank, does not mean it will work for your tank.

You FW tank is a lot more forgiving than a SW. Especially if the FW was a plant tank. I have run SW tanks were I did no water changes, but I relied on heavy skimming and supplements. But I would not recommend this. You have to be able to recognise when something is about to got wrong before it actually goes wrong.

It's just easier to avoid the headaches and do the required maintainence.

[Reeses]

Originally posted by Marsfrogie
Moving the pump closer to the surface has definitely made a difference. It is now bubbling a good amount of foam over into the collection cup. It's a little watery, but at least it's generating a nice amount of foam. Seemed to put a little extra sparkle in the water as well.

I'm happy that It's doing something!

Your skimmate that you'll collect will most likely always be watery and light colored. That's the hallmark of an inefficient skimmer. But for now, until you decide to upgrade (if you decide to upgrade) any skimmate is better than no skimmate at all. Before your skimmer will produce the best it can for you, it's got to run for a day or so to build a coating of organics around the neck so the foam can rise. Since your powerhead has been in there this whole time running, you might want to give it a good cleaning also. Skimmer pumps should be cleaned once a month or so to keep up their efficiency and bubble production.
I agree that you shouldn't add supplements until they are needed. In your case however, I think it might be possible that it's actually helped your tank since you haven't been changing water!

I would start changing water regularly, start testing your water, and keep fiddling with your skimmer until you decide to upgrade. When you mix new saltwater for water changes, make sure it's the same salinity/parameter of your tank. When replacing evaporated water, use only unsalted water because when the water evaporates, the salt stays behind. If you are using tap water, you should look into an RO unit or purchase water. Grocery stores usually have an water machine that can supply RO water for around .25 a gallon. I just received my RO unit yesterday, (been lugging water for a year and a half now) and I can't recommend one enough. My RO unit from www.airwaterice.com is giving me 0 TDS (total dissolved solids) and the water RO water from the grocery store had a reading of 40 TDS. Making sure your water is pure as possible will help ensure that you don't run into problems later, especially nuisance algae.

I hope all this helps!

Check out this thread on how to get the most out of your skimmer, no matter what kind you've got:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=554786

It's a huge thread and it's got soooooooooo much good advise in it!

[psimitry]

Originally posted by Reeses
Check out this thread on how to get the most out of your skimmer, no matter what kind you've got:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=554786

It's a huge thread and it's got soooooooooo much good advise in it!

In a way, I wish you had never linked that page. It just put about 10 projects at the top of my list of things to do...

[psimitry]

Originally posted by sloshes
I forgot, you can get a better air valve for it for about $1.

More info on any coralife SS mods S'il Vous Plait?

[Reeses]

Originally posted by psimitry
In a way, I wish you had never linked that page. It just put about 10 projects at the top of my list of things to do...

Yep, that thread has a way of doing that!