Taking my Skimmer offline

[Frogger]

I have had one of my tanks (75 gallon RedSea Reefer) set up for over 2 years now and have had a very difficult time keeping any measurable nitrates in the system. Without nitrates my phosphates run a little high. Not really an issue with algae growth because nothing grows well with low nitrates. Unfortunately corals don't grow well without nitrates either.

I started adding nitrates to my system a year and a half ago. This has been met with mixed success. It was great for a while unfortunately adding nitrates crashed my phosphates which resulted in loosing half of my corals within a week.

Since that initial crash I have been adding nitrates and phosphates to my tank to try to keep a balance. Unfortunately this requires constant testing because these are fickle additions and the values can crash or get out of hand real quick if not monitored closely.

About 5 months ago a large yellow tang died and I couldn't find the body anywhere. This caused my nitrates and phosphates to spike by a huge amount for about a month and a half. This caused my corals to loose colour.

In that time hair algae started to grow very fast and without the yellow tang to graze I was starting to get worried, used GFO to help keep the phosphates below .1ppm wasn't anything outside of large water changes I could do for the nitrates. Purchased an algae turf scrubber to try to help manage the nutrients and for other very important reasons.

Before I could hook up the algae turf scrubber my nitrates zero'd out again real quick. One day it was 30ppm and a couple days later couldn't get a reading from Redsea Pro test kit. Phosphates came down as well. About a week after this happened I hadn't started adding nitrates yet and I got a cyno bloom. It was growing on all the rocks and the sand.

After doing some research I found out that a cyno outbreak is common when there is no nitrates in the water and there is stored nitrates in the rock and gravel (from the nitrate spike). Cyno Bacteria will create these mats to be able to process nitrates out of the calcareous surfaces. The cure for this type of cyno outbreak was to raise my nitrates back up to the 1 to 2 ppm level. After about 2 months of doing 2 times daily blowing the cyno off the rocks and weekly water changes and siphoning out as much mats as possible I finally broke down and used Chemiclean to finish it off.

After I got everything under control I hooked up the ATS. I have been adding nitrates and phosphates daily to keep measurable amounts of nitrates and phosphates. The ATS is working great running on a nighttime lighting schedule to maintain ph and O2 levels removing copious amounts of algae.

Daily monitoring of my phosphates, nitrates and alkalinity is not a sustainable process that I want to continue.

I have been reducing my skimmer use because I believe it is the reason that my phosphates and nitrates are unmanageable. I have been over skimming the water.

I think with the ATS I can manage the nitrates and phosphate much better and only use the skimmer when it is needed. Hopefully reducing the need for daily testing.

Every tank is different what works on your tank works on your tank but doesn't work on other tanks. I currently have a 40 gallon sps tank that has been running for 17 years and I only test nitrates and phosphates once every 6 months, test alkalinity once every few weeks and change 10% water once a month if I feel like it. This tank has been in balance colors and growth of the corals are great for several years.

I don't test every day on the 75 gallon because I have nothing better to do I do it because if I didn't I wouldn't have anything but fish and zoas.

[Frogger]

I just had a good question about O2 levels in the tank and taking my skimmer off line. That s why I am running an ATS on a reverse lighting cycle so that photosynthesis will always be occurring thus using CO2 and producing O2 during the daylight phase of photosynthesis.

I could always run an airstone if I was concerned or turn the skimmer way down, if that was an option (my skimmer still works way to hard even at the lowest air setting).

[DKoKoMan]

I have never had this issue... mine is always trying to reduce nutrients. What is your Bioload like to not have anything detected?

[Frogger]

Right now I am down a couple fish, I had a couple mid sized tangs, 2 large clowns, a large melanarus wrasse, 2 green chromis and one anthia. I have about 3 to 400 hundred snails, copepods and manly SPS with one very large frogspawn in a 75 gallon tank. I feed moderately and feed the tank copepods, rotifers and phytoplankton. So moderate load and a moderate input of organics.

No matter what I add my tank just eats it up. I have been running a large tunze skimmer and it has been dialed all the way back for months.

Unfortunately I quarantine every thing for at least a month before I add it to the tank. I had a nice foxface in the quarantine and after 3 weeks he kicked the bucket. I am waiting for another one spot foxface and a captive bred coral beauty from J&L. Also trying to get other fish but am very particular about what I want in the tank.

Adding fish is not going to be the short term solution.

[Cujo#31]

My skimmer goes off line for 12 hours. 9 pm to 9 am for the very same reason, to keep Nitrates at detectable levels. If I have to adjust down for any reason I will run the skimmer 18 hours. I rarely ever have to dial down Nitrates and phosphate is left to wander although I have a tough time getting the numbers past .07 and test with Hanna.

[DKoKoMan]

That’s crazy! It’s definitely interesting how different tanks function and what the nutrient uptake is. If I don’t run GFO my phosphates will sneak up to 0.08ppm (Hanna checker) and nitrates are usually 5-10ppm. I feed my fish twice a day and not super heavy. I have my Vertex Alpha dialed pretty wet and utilize an area in my sump as a refugium for growing chaeto. Even with all that, I do a 30g biweekly WC and nitrates go as low as 5ppm. I utilize a small amount of GFO in a reactor to keep the numbers down around 0-.02ppm. Although I do not believe they are ever really zero for phosphate.

My tank has very little algae on the rocks or glass. My sps are starting to take off finally which is nice to see. I guess I just have a hard time understanding how your guys nitrates are nonexistent and I wonder what is consuming them so quickly.

[Frogger]

I have 2 tanks, one has nitrates around 2ppm that has been set up for over 15 years. It is perfectly balanced.

My other tank as is Cujo's is newer. I had added clean rocks with no phosphates (cooked them for a year and a half). It is a 75 gallon tank and I need to add 60mls of homemade sodium nitrate solution and 6mls of Potassium nitrate daily.

It is crazy how much nutrients I have to add just to keep my nutrients from bottoming out. I do grow algae in my turf scrubber and have some algae in the tank since my tang passed away but the algae in the tank is really not growing.

If I let my nitrates zero out I get cyno. I am also afraid I will get dinos if I let the nitrate zero out. I have had it happen in a different tank and zero nitrates and phosphates are not a good thing.

It could be that the rocks are still absorbing nutrients and that is why it gets sucked out of the water.

I have had the skimmer off for 2 days and have not seen a reduction in the nutrients my tank use up. Measured last night 1ppm nitrates. .02ppm phosphates.

[Frogger]

It has been 11 days since I have turned off my skimmer. I have seen no reduction in the amount of nitrates and phosphates I have to add to maintain measurable amounts of nutrients.

I think I might just run the skimmer for 6 hours at night to help oxygenate the tank and to remove some docs.

[tang daddy]

Originally Posted by Frogger

I have had one of my tanks (75 gallon RedSea Reefer) set up for over 2 years now and have had a very difficult time keeping any measurable nitrates in the system. Without nitrates my phosphates run a little high. Not really an issue with algae growth because nothing grows well with low nitrates. Unfortunately corals don't grow well without nitrates either.

I started adding nitrates to my system a year and a half ago. This has been met with mixed success. It was great for a while unfortunately adding nitrates crashed my phosphates which resulted in loosing half of my corals within a week.

Since that initial crash I have been adding nitrates and phosphates to my tank to try to keep a balance. Unfortunately this requires constant testing because these are fickle additions and the values can crash or get out of hand real quick if not monitored closely.

About 5 months ago a large yellow tang died and I couldn't find the body anywhere. This caused my nitrates and phosphates to spike by a huge amount for about a month and a half. This caused my corals to loose colour.

In that time hair algae started to grow very fast and without the yellow tang to graze I was starting to get worried, used GFO to help keep the phosphates below .1ppm wasn't anything outside of large water changes I could do for the nitrates. Purchased an algae turf scrubber to try to help manage the nutrients and for other very important reasons.

Before I could hook up the algae turf scrubber my nitrates zero'd out again real quick. One day it was 30ppm and a couple days later couldn't get a reading from Redsea Pro test kit. Phosphates came down as well. About a week after this happened I hadn't started adding nitrates yet and I got a cyno bloom. It was growing on all the rocks and the sand.

After doing some research I found out that a cyno outbreak is common when there is no nitrates in the water and there is stored nitrates in the rock and gravel (from the nitrate spike). Cyno Bacteria will create these mats to be able to process nitrates out of the calcareous surfaces. The cure for this type of cyno outbreak was to raise my nitrates back up to the 1 to 2 ppm level. After about 2 months of doing 2 times daily blowing the cyno off the rocks and weekly water changes and siphoning out as much mats as possible I finally broke down and used Chemiclean to finish it off.

After I got everything under control I hooked up the ATS. I have been adding nitrates and phosphates daily to keep measurable amounts of nitrates and phosphates. The ATS is working great running on a nighttime lighting schedule to maintain ph and O2 levels removing copious amounts of algae.

Daily monitoring of my phosphates, nitrates and alkalinity is not a sustainable process that I want to continue.

I have been reducing my skimmer use because I believe it is the reason that my phosphates and nitrates are unmanageable. I have been over skimming the water.

I think with the ATS I can manage the nitrates and phosphate much better and only use the skimmer when it is needed. Hopefully reducing the need for daily testing.

Every tank is different what works on your tank works on your tank but doesn't work on other tanks. I currently have a 40 gallon sps tank that has been running for 17 years and I only test nitrates and phosphates once every 6 months, test alkalinity once every few weeks and change 10% water once a month if I feel like it. This tank has been in balance colors and growth of the corals are great for several years.

I don't test every day on the 75 gallon because I have nothing better to do I do it because if I didn't I wouldn't have anything but fish and zoas.

I read the long novel... great play by play!
Now I know what you’re going to say but I believe that natural balance is the recipe for a healthy reef. I don’t use gfo gac anything and now don’t even dose trace...
A healthy bio load where I control how the fish are fed, for awhile I had Lps heavy tank which required a lot of feeding and then wc to offset the nutrients. I can safely say that this summer I did no waterchanges, and a 20g end of season just to reset things. I don’t clean my frozen food in a strainer and feed pretty dirty when I feed pellets. More recently I have fed everyday and corals are colouring up a lot. A healthy fish load on an established tank with dirty feedings can benifit your reef, however you need a way for nutrient export so I believe my success is from the Xenia garden sucking up the nitrates and macro farm that is constantly thriving...

I believe you’ve seen my set up once before and remembered the real Chinatown of Richmond...lots of fish creates biodiversity, lots of feeding equals more food for corals and lastly algae farm leaves the display meticulously clean!

Good luck bro hope your tank is better.

[Frogger]

Thanks for the input, your where I want to be. My other tank is already there.

I read the long novel... great play by play!
Now I know what you’re going to say but I believe that natural balance is the recipe for a healthy reef. I don’t use gfo gac anything and now don’t even dose trace...
A healthy bio load where I control how the fish are fed, for awhile I had Lps heavy tank which required a lot of feeding and then wc to offset the nutrients. I can safely say that this summer I did no waterchanges, and a 20g end of season just to reset things. I don’t clean my frozen food in a strainer and feed pretty dirty when I feed pellets. More recently I have fed everyday and corals are colouring up a lot. A healthy fish load on an established tank with dirty feedings can benifit your reef, however you need a way for nutrient export so I believe my success is from the Xenia garden sucking up the nitrates and macro farm that is constantly thriving...

I believe you’ve seen my set up once before and remembered the real Chinatown of Richmond...lots of fish creates biodiversity, lots of feeding equals more food for corals and lastly algae farm leaves the display meticulously clean!

Good luck bro hope your tank is better.