Thoughts on over skimming

[Canadian]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Well I have an update but it's not good

All I changed was the skimmer which was set to a 0.5 duty cycle (12am to 12pm). Sunday night was fine and no problems where presented but last night proved different. I never checked the tank this morning so I'm not sure when this went down but I can home from work today to find that the skimmer had overflowed, it was off by the time I got home but the sump was still foamy and the skimmer cup was full of clear water. I emptied the collection cup Sunday and virtually nothing was in the skimmer on Monday so I don't think a lot of skimmate was dumped in the tank.

The bad part of this story is that virtually all my fish are dead, including my seahorse and lionfish which I've had for close to 20 months. All corals, clams and other inverts seem the same. Overall the tank looks normal, I'm going to test amonia and nitrite right away but I'm guessing these will be normal.

Skimmer is back on regular full duty cycle but I'm completely clueless what happened. This is likely the last straw for me and this hobby at this time, obviously I don't have the proper time and patience to spend on it right now and I just can't handle the extra stress. More than likely everything will be up for sale soon enough but if you have any ideas on what happened please still share them because I would still like to know.

Sorry to hear about your skimmer problems and subsequent losses. This is exactly the kind of thing that prompted me to install a float switch into my skimmer cup over the weekend. I've had a couple episodes of my skimmer overflowing for no apparent reason (one time while on vacation leading to some nasty damage). I don't know if it's a BK thing because I get the same intermittent fizzing then skimming thing you described earlier as well. I'll never run a skimmer without a float switch in the collection cup again.

Don't bow out yet. Take it as an opportunity to install some new backup hardware - new toys are fun

[Coleus]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Well I have an update but it's not good

All I changed was the skimmer which was set to a 0.5 duty cycle (12am to 12pm). Sunday night was fine and no problems where presented but last night proved different. I never checked the tank this morning so I'm not sure when this went down but I can home from work today to find that the skimmer had overflowed, it was off by the time I got home but the sump was still foamy and the skimmer cup was full of clear water. I emptied the collection cup Sunday and virtually nothing was in the skimmer on Monday so I don't think a lot of skimmate was dumped in the tank.

The bad part of this story is that virtually all my fish are dead, including my seahorse and lionfish which I've had for close to 20 months. All corals, clams and other inverts seem the same. Overall the tank looks normal, I'm going to test amonia and nitrite right away but I'm guessing these will be normal.

Skimmer is back on regular full duty cycle but I'm completely clueless what happened. This is likely the last straw for me and this hobby at this time, obviously I don't have the proper time and patience to spend on it right now and I just can't handle the extra stress. More than likely everything will be up for sale soon enough but if you have any ideas on what happened please still share them because I would still like to know.

Sorry to hear your lost.


What level nitrate is considered high nutrients?
________
Marijuana sativa

[mr.wilson]

Originally Posted by Coleus

Sorry to hear your lost.


What level nitrate is considered high nutrients?

Nitrate levels over 25 ppm will adversely affect coral health. Anything above 10 ppm will cause nuisance algae growth. I would shoot for 2 ppm.

Phosphates should be 0.05 ppm. Corals will be adversely affected if it goes above 0.10 ppm.

Nutrient levels on natural reefs are zero, but they are always bioavailable. Captive reefs don't have as much organic phosphate and nitrogen available due to a lack of plankton. As a result zero nutrient tanks are only suitable for sps corals. Good lighting and heavier feeding must also be implemented.

[Doug]

Sheez Steve. Sorry for your losses. Figured it had to be something besides the skimmer & oxygen, as many dont run skimmers and IMO, the overflow/down stack provides more than enough o2.

Sometimes I look at my controller, {RK2} and wonder.

[sphelps]

I know what you mean Doug, you spend all this money on these devices that are suppose to make things easier and safer but all they really do is add more complication which can result in more human error. I tried to make this system as simple as possible to avoid these kinds of things but I guess I should have maybe left the controller out as well. Oh well. Your RK2 is probably a little better since it's not translated from German, things are probably a little more clear.

It still makes no sense to me, "when active then feeding pause", wouldn't one assume this to mean if device active then include in feeding pause? The other way doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Anyways, I haven't decided what to do as far as selling or staying in yet. I feel bad about the losses and there's a lot going on in my life right now so much more involved than this last disaster, but knowing the exact cause really helps. If it was up to me I'd probably just sell it and start up fresh a few years down the road with things stabilize. However like most of us I have a better half who always seems to have 51% ownership and gets the final say and she's against selling so.....

Since I know the cause I decided to continue with the experiment, the skimmer is set back to the 0.5 duty cycle. I'll have to figure out a way to program it the way I want it but for now it's just a timer combined with a filter so it shuts off during a feeding pause but doesn't have the extra delay I want. I will continue with things as planned and report back with results. I'll be testing Nitrate and Phosphate weekly in an attempt to track results but likely the real results will be all visual.