Toxic help

[DNoakes]

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

I doubt this is causing your problem but I thought I'd mention it anyways. I've read that lava rock is a poor choice for saltwater aquarium rock because it will leach undesirable metals like iron into your water. If I could remember where I read this I'd post a link for you but unfortunately I've forgotten.

Based on the other information you've provided all I can think of is to keep doing water changes, perhaps get a better skimmer (I don't like coralife anything) and give us some more information. For instance, how old is your system? What are your other water chemistry parameters? Do your tanks contain any livestock yet?

I don't like Coralife anymore myself at least not anymore. I do have fish in the system, 10 chromis, 1 imperator,1 manderin goby, 2 purple anthias, 2 clownfish. I have tested the lavarock for leaching of minerals and it came back negative. The system has been running with full loads on it in excess of 50 fish for weeks at a time with no problems and now with a light load on it it crashed hard. Even though I've fought with the skimmer for quite a while the damn thing it has always at least skimmed fairly well for me. Like I say it started frothing a thick white milky substance for a day and then stopped skimming all together. Then the big ammonia strike hit. I'm thinking I have to also switch skimmers. Was thinking about the aqua C 1000 or the Precision Marine Bullet XL. If you know of a better industrial strength skimmer for a reasonable price please let me know.
Thanks
DNoakes