New Marine Tank

[SkiFletch]

Most "dry" skimming would fill the cup in 3-7 days, wet skimming 1-3 days. Sounds like yours is right in between the two. I'd leave it as-is. There's a break-in period for a skimmer over the first couple weeks of owning it. You'll probably notice that it skims dryer and dryer over the next few days

 

[mbu man]

ok thanx.
so what is best then, wet or dry skimming?
what is the difference,apart from the obvious?

 

[SkiFletch]

The obvious

 

[mbu man]

skimmer still not skimming propley, starting to annoy me! i must be more pactient (story of my life)
it seams that its either filling up very quickly or its not doing alot of flow over at all??
would their be alot of protien in my tank? as i dont really have alot in it?

 

[Musho3210]

wait a while, if it still isnt skimming with a medium bio-load, ask us again, since you dont have much in there dont expect it to skim much.

 

[SkiFletch]

Also remember, bubble formation is directly affected by 3 things really:

The size and suction force of the air injector
The diameter of the airline tubing
The surface tension of the saltwater which can change quickly

The first is obviously hardware dependent, and usually a function of the size pump chosen. The diameter of the airline tubing used can have a big difference in bubble formation. Shorter and wider tube with fewer fittings will allow it to breathe better, inject more air, and therefore make more bubbles. There is a practical limit to air injection. If you try to supply it with an air pump you'll overload the impeller of the skimmer, cause it to spin freely, and just kick out big bubbles, not tiny ones.

Lastly, surface tension of the water has a HUGE impact on bubble formation. With increased surface tension, the bubbles can be smaller and more numerous. With decreased surface tension bubbles are larger and fewer. Sticking your hand in your tank will add skin oils to the water column which will decrase surface tension and cause your bubble production to go WAY down. Adding some medications can increase surface tension and cause your skimmer to "go crazy" and produce way too many bubbles. Feeding various foods can have postitive or negative effet on short-term bubble formations. Regardless there are many things that affects surface tension and bubble formation in the short term

 

[mbu man]

ok.
next is the water movement, tank is 48x20x24 high.
ive got a fluval 405 on a spray bar at the top of tank skimming over very top of water, a fluval 304 with a normal spout end flowing from back left, a power head on the bottom of the back right with a 2 splitter on it and have got a seizo comming tomorrow, that is going to go at the back left. is that ok? or do i need alot more? i want to keep fish,rock and anommoes.

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, anemones are risky to have with powerheads and filters in the tank. That being said you don't have much of a choice . The difficuly is that if they go for a "walk" around the tank and end up on the inlet to the pump... Well, you can guess the rest.

Anyways, that being said, nems usually like lots of flow. That's a standard 90gal tank, so you'd be looking for say 3000gph worth of flow at least. Not sure what your filters are rated for but you're prolly gonna want to consider some bigger powerheads like the Hydor Koralias, Tunze Streams, and Seios to get you to where you want to be flow-wise

 

[mbu man]

1 power head that ive got is a 900 lph,got a Seio M250 gph - 1000 lph on its way in the post,should turn up monday, fluval 305 is 1000 lph that is comming out of an ouval pipe, fluval 405 is 1300 lph, so that makes 4200 lph of movment. is that alright then?

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, you want 30 times the tank capacity in flowrate for nems. A 90g tank is 340 liters. So either 2700GPH or 10200LPH whichever measure you use. 4200LPH isn't even halfway there

 

[mbu man]

blimey didnt realise that you had to have that much. back to my lfs then for me!

 

[Musho3210]

get more propellar/stream pumps, good energy savers and wont heat up the tank as much.

 

[mbu man]

skimmer is working great now,loads of yellow/black gunk collecting in the collection pot

 

[mbu man]

skimmers doing well, got 4x54 t 5`s as lighting,still waiting for my 2 m820 powerheads
got loads more live rock,got a bit that has a nem and a mushroom that is red and spreading a bit already.
ive had the attack of the brown algae that has gone, its attack of the green algae with a touch of what looks red,back of the tank is also starting to get nice and green.
my 4 chromis are doing fine, i also have loads and i mean about 12 small star fish, some are green,black.
will this algae go?